The 25-tonnes of food, medicines, tents and mattresses was scheduled to depart New Delhi aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft during the afteroon.

"It should leave between 15:30 (1000 GMT) and 16:00 (1030 GMT). For Islamabad it should be about two hours travel time maximum. It should reach Islamabad evening time," said an air force spokesman.

Foreign secretary Shyam Saran announced the aid effort on Monday evening as the death toll in Pakistan was estimated as high as 40,000 with another 60,000 injured. Almost 1,000 Indian lives were lost in Indian Kashmir.

He said that the humanitarian mission was very likely the first such airlift from India to its longtime enemy since the 1971 war between the two countries.

"The prime minister (Manmohan Singh) has directed that a consignment should be put together on an urgent basis and delivered to Pakistan," Saran said.

Pakistan's ambassador to India, Aziz Ahmed Khan, had accepted India's offer after meeting Singh.

As India and Pakistan grapple with the aftermath of Saturday's earthquake, analysts in both nations said that the aid delivery could spur their peace process.

Uday Bhaksar, deputy head of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, a New Delhi think tank, called it a "symbolically important" development.

"In the past there has been a certain reluctance by Pakistan to accept assistance from India," Bhaksar said. "This will have a positive effect on the peace process and the perception of one about the other."

The shared tragedy has struck both sides of the de facto border that divides Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory that has twice led the two nations to war.

"It is a very good development in bilateral relations between the two countries," I.A. Rehman, head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told AFP.

"In tragedies like this, when people are afflicted, rivals come to their senses. They realised they need to work together," he said.

India and Pakistan began a peace process in January 2004 that renewed cultural, sports and economic links snapped in 2002.

The two countries had poured troops onto their border in 2002 following an attack by suspected Pakistan-backed militants on India's parliament. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, while Islamabad denied the charge.

They have since been involved in peace talks including confidence-building measures to avoid an accidental nuclear war between them.

But mountainous Kashmir remains at the heart of their dispute.

New Delhi repeatedly accuses Pakistan of not reining in Muslim militants who infiltrate Indian-held Kashmir to wage a bloody insurgency.

"The latest development augurs well in improving relations between Pakistan and India," Pakistani political and defence analyst, retired Lieutentant General Talat Masood, told AFP.

"It shows both countries want to show goodwill whenever the opportunity arrives," he said. "As Pakistan is in distress, it is a good gesture from India. Pakistan has made similar gestures to India in the past."

In the wake of an earthquake in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2001, Pakistan sent several planes with tents and other relief supplies to India.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.