"We would like to use restraint," said Indian army number two Lieutenant General Bhupinder Singh Thakur, after mortar bombs exploded in the Poonch sector on Tuesday night and wounded one person.

Poonch lies 245 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Jammu, winter capital of Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir, racked by a revolt against New Delhi's rule.

"There's going to be a series of discussions on this and I am sure with the kind of understanding that exists between the two armies, there will be a better understanding and restraint on both sides," Thakur said.

"We hope the Pakistan government will consider this case with all seriousness," he told reporters in New Delhi.

In other violence in mainly Muslim Kashmir, police said eight militants died Wednesday in separate clashes with Indian security forces. Two rebels died in southern Poonch, four were killed in Rajouri and two died in Anantnag. Suspected rebels also killed a civilian in Doda district.

Indian soldiers also killed five militants who were trying to sneak into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani zone in Poonch on Tuesday.

Thakur said that, following the mortar incident, the Indian director general of military operations spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Wednesday, "telling him all our concerns".

"They have also heard of such blasts. They don't know who fired them," Thakur said, adding Pakistan had promised to investigate.

"We take it as a violation of the ceasefire," said Thakur, noting, "This is the first time this calibre of weapons have been used."

He said 60 mm and 82 mm mortars were fired in three salvoes, at 6:30 pm, 7:25 pm and 8:00 pm.

Thakur said the shells were "available" to the Pakistani army, but the 82 mm calibre with a range of five kilometres (three miles) was also "available with the terrorists".

India refers to the Islamic militants who have been waging a 15-year rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir as "terrorists".

Asked what it would take to provoke an Indian riposte, the deputy army chief said: "Nothing is quantified as a trigger point. We will basically take it on a case to case basis.

In Islamabad the Pakistani military denied it had violated the ceasefire in the divided state of Kashmir, which has been the spark of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan. They came close to another conflict in 2002.

"No one from Pakistan has fired and there is no ceasefire violation by Pakistan," said military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan.

India and Pakistan launched the ceasefire on November 25, 2003, as part of a tentative peace process. For years before, they routinely exchanged artillery fire across the Line of Control, the de facto border separating their armies in Kashmir.

Colonel R. K. Sen, a spokesman for the Indian Army's Northern Command in Kashmir, told AFP by telephone the border situation was peaceful Wednesday.

He said Indian forces were on alert but the army did not know what provoked the mortar fire. He said the Indian side had not retaliated "because we did not want the peace process under way to be jeopardised."

Islamabad and New Delhi have been holding formal peace talks since January

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is due to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on the sidelines of a regional summit in Dhaka on February 6-7. Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh is due to visit Pakistan later next month.

Official-level talks have continued under a "composite dialogue" process. This reviews a host of disputes including the core problem of Kashmir, where tens of thousands have died in the insurgency.

India, which holds two-thirds of Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of arming rebels and helping them cross the Line of Control. Pakistan denies the charge and says it is doing its best to stop infiltration.

A diplomatic row also erupted after last week's failure of talks over Indian plans to build a dam in Kashmir.

Pakistan plans to seek World Bank arbitration, claiming it will lose vital water. New Delhi on Tuesday urged further technical talks and said there was no justification for going to the World Bank, which brokered a 1960 treaty on water use.

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