SRINAGAR, India, Aug 19 (AFP) - India's chief election officer Monday ruled out any postponement of staggered elections for the state assembly in troubled Kashmir state due to be begin September 16.

"The commission is all set to hold elections in four phases as per the already announced schedule," Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh told Nampa-AFP. Lyngdoh is currently on a tour of the state, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.

A private committee trying to pave the way for talks between the Indian government and Kashmiri separatists on Sunday called for a delay of the vote for the state assembly to allow greater participation.

Ram Jethmalani, who heads the Kashmir Committee, told a news conference in Srinagar on Sunday after meeting separatist leaders he hoped the Election Commission would "take note" of widespread calls for a postponement.

"Many leaders of various groups have assured us of participation in the polls. Many others have promised conditional participation," Jethmalani said.

"The major condition that has come from all the quarters is that elections ought to be postponed for some time.

"I hope the Election Commission will take note of this widespread demand," Jethmalani added.

"Speaking on behalf of the committee, we do believe that this demand is not unreasonable and participation in elections should not be frustrated on this small point."

Asked to comment on the committee's recomendations, Lyngdoh said: "That is between them and the government. As far as we know, we are all set to hold elections as per schedule."

He said the current drive to issue voters' identification cards to people in the state had "evoked tremendous response".

On the growing security concerns in the wake of militant threats to disrupt the polls, he said, "I have reviewed the security arrangements with the officials and I can assure you that these will be better than they were in the past."

Lyngdoh and his team of commission officials were due to visit Hindu-dominated Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital, later in the day.

Only one separatist leader, Shabir Shah of the Democratic Freedom Party, has so far shown any interest in the vote, which is due to end October 8.

But a member of the Kashmir Committee, which met Shah on Sunday, said the separatist leader had laid down as a precondition that the poll be used "as a means to identify the genuine representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem through future negotiations."

The main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, has not budged from its original position of ignoring the vote, although it has not repeated the call for a boycott it made in the last state assembly ballot in 1996.

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