A four-member committee headed by defence analyst K Subramanyam was appointed following a special cabinet meeting on Saturday.

It will submit its findings in three months, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan.

The committee will also recommend measures to safeguard national security.

The other three members on the inquiry panel are veteran journalist, B G Verghese, a retired senior Indian Army officer, Lieutenant General K K Hazari and the Secretary of the National Security Council, Satish Chandra.

Danilel Lak in Delhi: It seems the Indian defence establishment is in for some sort of traumatic shake-up

The Indian army also independently has set up a probe into the events leading to the intrusion, Defence Minister George Fernandes said.

It took about 10 weeks of intense fighing, including air strikes, and the diplomatic intervention of the United States, before most of the intruders - said by India to be Pakistani regular army soldiers - could be dislodged.

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has already dismissed suggestions that there was a breakdown in intelligence gathering or communication that led to the military being rudely surprised by the infiltration.

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The opposition Congress party has said that it wants to make what it describes as the intelligence failures relating to the Kargil dispute into an election issue.

The BBC Delhi Correspondent, Daniel Lak, says some reports have suggested that bureaucratic bungling meant that the Indian army was ill-equipped for rapid deployment and prolonged mountain warfare, once the infiltrators were detected.

Meanwhile, reports reaching Delhi say the Indian Army has continued artillery shelling on some posts which India says are still being held by Pakistan-backed forces.

Pakistan denies that its troops were involved in the capture of the Kargil heights and says that it was the work of Kashmiri separatists, who pulled out of the region under the disengagement accord.

This was the fourth day in a row of fresh fighting after a seven-day lull. India says at least 60 infiltrators are holding a point each in the Mushkoh Valley, Drass and Batalik sub-sectors. Delhi says that Indian troops are moving ahead in all the three sub-sectors but the advance is slow as the area is strewn with mines.

The army is refusing to set any time-frame for clearing the area since they say they want to keep the number of casualties to the minimum.

Mr Vajpayee has ruled out peace talks with Pakistan while Indian soldiers continue fighting. But correspondents say a meaningful dialogue between the two sides is unlikely before a new government assumes office in Delhi in October, after the completion of the Indian general elections.

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