London, Mar 28 : The Wiltshire town of Trowbridge, famous for producing pork pies, has become the first town in Britain to be twinned with a Muslim Arab town.

Trowbridge, which is home to 30,000 people has been paired with Oujda in eastern Morocco, having a population of 500,000.

The Wiltshire town, which produces Bowyer pork pies, claims to have the largest Moroccan population in Britain outside London.

The Independent reports that the civil links between Wiltshire and Oujda are evident as many of the 80 Moroccan families in Trowbridge originate from Oujda, and came to the town in 1960s to work for Bowyers and the bed manufacturer Airsprung.

The first proposal to pair the two towns was presented by the Moroccan community in 2005.

However, after years of thoughtful discussions, the twinning charter was finalised last week, when a Moroccan delegation visited Trowbridge for the first time.

The paper quoted Trowbridge''s Moroccan partnership steering group chairman Bob Brice as saying, "I think they liked it... We took them to Longleat House and the Safari Park, where we showed them the African lions, which they enjoyed. One of the delegates was an architect and he was very fond of our old, well-kept buildings."

The twinning between the two towns is expected to create an example of Muslim-Christian harmony. (ANI)