The troops, who belonged to the army's counter-insurgency wing, the Rashtriya Rifles, were travelling through the wooded Salar area of central Anantnag district when their vehicle ran over the mine, an army spokesman said.

Soldiers were rushed in and sealed off the area. Kashmir's largest rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin, which wants Indian Kashmir to join Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the blast in a telephone call to local media.

It was the deadliest attack in the scenic Himalayan territory since five separatists met Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on January 22 and jointly called for an end to 15 years of bloodshed in the Muslim-majority province.

The separatists, including Kashmir's chief Muslim cleric Umar Farooq, were also received in New Delhi by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Muslim militants rejected the appeal to stop the violence, deriding the separatists who travelled to the Indian capital as "paid agents".

In separate violence overnight, suspected rebels shot dead two Muslim civilians in Anantnag and in the southern Doda district, police said. The motives behind the killings were not immediately known.

A third civilian was killed in the crossfire between troops and militants in the northern Kupwara district, a police spokesman said.

The unrest comes ahead of February 16-18 talks in Islamabad between India and Pakistan to discuss bilateral disputes including Kashmir, which has triggered two fully-fledged wars between them since independence in 1947.

The nuclear-capable neighbours nearly came to another war in 2002 but launched a drive last year to repair ties, and on November 26 entered an historic border ceasefire in Kashmir.

Both Indian security forces and rebels said the border truce, which silenced nearly daily skirmishes between the rival militaries, would not affect operations inside Indian-administered Kashmir.