NEW DELHI (AFP) - - A group of Pakistani troops crossed into the Indian part of disputed Kashmir Monday and shot dead an Indian soldier, sparking a gun battle, an army spokesman in New Delhi said

The complaint of an incursion by Pakistani troops is the first to be made by India since 1999, when the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals fought a mini-war in the Kargil peaks along the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir.

"Between 10 and 12 Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control and entered the Kupwara sector (in Indian Kashmir), and after a verbal duel they shot dead a soldier," Indian army spokesman Anil Kumar Mathur told AFP.

He said the killing triggered an exchange of fire, which was continuing into the evening. Military sources, however, said both sides were only using small arms and that they did not see the confrontation high in the Himalayas escalating.

According to the spokesman, the soldiers crossed 200 metres (650 feet) into Indian territory to "object to the setting up of a post by Indian army soldiers."

The infiltration took place at 3:00 pm (0930 GMT) in a mountainous area 90 kilometres (56 miles) north of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, an Indian army statement said.

"After that our troops also retaliated and the Pakistani troops ran back. We don't know yet whether Pakistani troops suffered any casualties. The exchange of fire is continuing in the area," the army statement added.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani army's spokesman said he had no information on the clash.

"I don't have any information about this incident right now," Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

But an Indian commander in Kashmir said the Pakistani infiltrators "were in uniform and fully-armed."

"So far, the situation is not too serious as only small arms and personal weapons are being used in the exchanges," rather than mortars or artillery, the senior officer said on condition he not be named.

"There is also no need for us to send reinforcements to Kupwara as we have adequate numbers up out there," he said. India has around 300,000 troops on the 440-kilometre (273-mile) Line of Control.

The South Asian rivals agreed to a ceasefire in November 2003 along the LoC and launched a peace process in January 2004.

Since then India has made repeated complaints that Pakistani troops have been helping Islamic militants infiltrate Indian territory to join a Muslim insurgency raging since 1989.

Pakistani troops have also been accused in the past of providing covering fire for Islamist militants.

India and Pakistan fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their independence in 1947 and came dangerously close to a full-scale conflict in 1999 when New Delhi accused Islamabad of pushing troops into its Kargil peaks.

The latest incident is considered serious because it again involves allegations of a blatant intrusion and shooting by Pakistani soldiers, albeit a small number.

It also comes a week after Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said the peace process was "under stress," citing repeated incidents along the Line of Control and New Delhi's view that "elements" in Islamabad were behind the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul earlier this month.

Indian and Pakistani leaders are scheduled to meet at an upcoming South Asian summit in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo this weekend.