"There is no proposal to announce any ceasefire in operations against militants even as an Eid gesture. Nobody has mooted it," Fernandes told reporters on the sidelines of an Asian Security Conference.

A Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq told reporters this week he was optimistic New Delhi would declare a unilateral ceasefire next week to coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid.

"Eid is approaching so we are hopeful the government of India will announce a unilateral ceasefire," said Farooq, a senior leader of the moderate wing of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

"The first initiative should be taken by the government of India ... we hope the militants will reciprocate and we can move forward," he added.

Last week, moderate separatist leaders held landmark talks with Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani after which both sides issued a statement calling for an end to violence in Kashmir.

They agreed to hold further talks in March in a bid to find a solution to the 14-year-old insurgency that has left at least 40,000 dead by the official toll and at least double that number by the separatists' tally.

The meeting marked the first time the separatists and the government had held such high-level talks and came only two weeks after nuclear rivals India and Pakistan agreed to resume discussions next month on a host of disputes, including Kashmir, trigger of two of their three wars.

The separatists want independence for Kashmir or its incorporation into Pakistan. India and Pakistan hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full.

Hardline separatist groups have dismissed last week's talks as a "sellout" by the moderates of Kashmir's interests.

WAR.WIRE