At least six people were killed and 25 wounded, some of them seriously, in a powerful explosion at a busy fruit market in Kashmir's main city on Saturday, police said.

"The bomb was planted in a car and parked near the gate of the fruit market," K. Rajendran, Kashmir's Inspector General of Police said, "six people have been killed and 25 wounded in the blast."

The fruit market near the Batamaloo district of Srinagar, the Muslim-majority region's main city, is located on Kashmir's major highway.

No one has so far claimed responsibility but a dozen or so Muslim separatist rebel groups have been battling Indian security forces in the area since 1989.

Mostly Hindu India accuses Muslim Pakistan of arming and training the guerrillas while Pakistan denies the charges.

The South Asian rivals have fought three wars since 1947, two of them over Kashmir, and nearly went to war again last year after a late 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that India blamed on Pakistan-based rebels.

New Delhi and Islamabad have recently restored full diplomatic relations and cross-border bus links but India has linked fresh talks on improving ties to an end to attacks by the separatists.

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