Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to address the Combined Services Commanders' Conference Tuesday while Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will wind up the annual session on Friday, the official said.

"The changing scenario in India's neighbourhood and international issues such as the conflict in Iraq and rising fuel prices will be part of the discussions," the senior defence ministry official told AFP.

He said issues such as the induction of a newly-purchased Russian aircraft carrier and the refurbishment of some of the ageing fleet of the 137-ship Indian navy would be on the agenda.

The fine-tuned war doctrine is also likely to deal with the formation of smaller strike groups, modern measures to battle insurgencies and the modernisation of the infantry, artillery and armoured forces.

"The speedy induction (into the military) of nuclear-capable short and medium range missiles is very much on the agenda," the official said as the five-day brainstorming session began in the Indian capital.

India, which conducted a series of nuclear weapons tests in 1998, is currently racing ahead with an ambitious missile development programme to build a triad of delivery systems which involves the airforce and the navy.

India's political establishment holds the nuclear button but the million-plus army insists on controlling the ballistic missiles, some of which can strike deep inside neighbouring China.

The commanders will also mull proposals made last week by the first-ever conclave of ex-army chiefs for a special force to put down Islamic militancy in insurgency-wracked Kashmir.

Eight former army chiefs attending the conclave said such an exclusive force could guard Kashmir's turbulent borders to try to put the brakes on infiltration by rebels from the Pakistani-zone of divided Kashmir.

Despite an ongoing process to normalise ties, India accuses Pakistan of not doing enough to stem the flow of armed guerrillas into troubled Kashmir, where insurgency has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the anti-Indian uprising began in 1989.

India currently has some 60,000 combat troops on its borders with Pakistan in Kashmir and frequently the soldiers are called in to back paramilitary forces during clashes with militants in the Himalayan territory.

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