Brij Lal, a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh state, told reporters an anti-terrorist team chased a car carrying two men towards the capital before intercepting it in the suburb of Noida, 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the city.

He said passports recovered from the vehicle indicated the two dead men were Pakistani, and police were investigating if they had links to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based militant group India blames for the Mumbai attacks.

"They are definitely Pakistani but unless we examine the documents we cannot come to any conclusion (whether they belonged to LeT)," said Lal.

"The team asked the terrorists to surrender," Lal said, but they started firing at officers, and the two men were shot in a fierce gunbattle in a nearby field. One officer was injured in the crossfire.

The militants died on the way to the hospital, he added.

Police said they found two AK-47 assault rifles, five hand grenades and detonators in the car.

Federal police and the government have not yet commented on the case, and had not confirmed the nationalities of the two suspects killed.

The incident occurred on the eve of Monday's Republic Day holiday, which is being marked amid heightened security following the attacks in Mumbai in late November, in which 10 gunmen killed 165 people.

Fears that Islamist militants could disrupt the annual military parade have led to the deployment of 20,000 heavily armed troops, Delhi police have said.

Sitanshu Kar, a spokesman for the defence ministry, which organises Republic Day events, told AFP after Sunday's incident that "security remains at a high level."

New Delhi police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal earlier warned that Islamist militants could try to attack the Republic Day parade, which is designed to display India's role as a regional economic and military power.

"There are intelligence inputs (of possible strikes by guerrillas)," Dadwal said.

The centre of the capital will be virtually shut down for Monday's celebrations, with security stepped up in areas close to the parade route such as metro stations and shopping centres.

India -- backed by many international governments -- says LeT militants led the carnage in Mumbai, the country's financial centre.

The lone surviving attacker, a Pakistani national, is in Indian custody.

The governmemt in New Delhi has said that given the level of sophistication of the attacks, the group must have had support from some "official agencies" in Pakistan -- a charge Islamabad has rejected.

Dadwal said a "ground-to-air security apparatus" was in place for Monday's parade with anti-aircraft guns, snipers and helicopter gunships at the ready to thwart militant strikes.

On January 26, 1950, India became a sovereign democratic state with a written constitution and an elected parliament, after gaining independence from British rule in 1947.

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