Training camps for rebels flourishing in Pakistan

"It is unfortunate, but it is true, that across the border the camps are flourishing," home secretary V.K. Duggal said.

Speaking to reporters in the Indian Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar, Duggal said New Delhi knew how many militants were being trained and how many were likely to infiltrate Indian territory.

"But we are also ready to take that challenge and meet them effectively as we have done in the last few years," he said.

Pakistan, which also controls part of Kashmir, denies arming or training militants and Islamabad has said it is trying to prevent armed men crossing the de facto border dividing the region between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The insurgency, which began in 1989 has cost more than 44,000 lives.

Infiltration of militants into Indian Kashmir usually picks up during summer when snows in the Himalayan passes start to melt.

Pakistan and India have been engaged in a slow-moving peace process since January 2004. Contact between politicians and traders has picked up, and while the Kashmir dispute has yet to be addressed, the Indian military acknowledges that violence has gradually declined in the region since the talks began.

Duggal spent the day in Kashmir to review the internal security situation following a series of bombings in Srinagar last Friday that killed five people and injured 43.