Singh was to take a helicopter to the northern frontier districts of Uri and Tangdar, which suffered the heaviest casualties in Saturday's massive tremor.

Officials said the premier would take stock of the situation and assess the relief and rescue operations.

A federal inter-ministerial team would follow Singh to make an on-the-spot assessment of the damage, Home Ministry secretary VK Duggal told reporters.

Indian Kashmir's Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said the struggle to contact outlying areas continued Tuesday amid warnings the death toll could rise.

"Both police and army are making efforts to reach a number of villages cut off by the earthquake," he said.

The villages were cut off when the temblor measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale triggered mud and landslides, blocking roads and tracks in the mountainous, forested Himalayan hills.

The official death toll rose some 300 on Monday to top 950 in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Another 3,000 were injured.

"There are over 12,000 people living in scores of villages who have not been reached so far. The road links to these villages have been snapped," Nayeem Akhter, a senior state government official, told AFP late Monday.

"We know nothing about them," he said, "and I personally think the death toll is likely to rise."

On Tuesday, Akhter said police and army personnel had set out on foot to reach the isolated settlements.

"In a day or two a clear image will appear vis-a-vis damage and loss of life in these areas," he said.

Both Uri, a town of 30,000 people which lies at 5,100 feet (1,545 metres) and Tangdar sit close to the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The epicenter of the quake was in Pakistan whre as many as 40,000 people died.

Akhter said the state government has set up a special Crisis Management Group to monitor relief and rescue operations.

The state government announced it had set up satellite phone links in Uri and Tangdar after telephone lines went down.

"Seven power generators have also been provided to make-shift hospitals in the two most affected areas," a statement said.

The government, based in Srinagar, had also dispatched 21 medical teams to take care of the sick and injured. "This is in addition to the medical help being provided by the army and the paramilitary forces," it said.

Army medics and dog rescue teams have also been working round the clock to locate and treat survivors in the remote mountainous villages, situated at elevations as high as 11,000 feet.

Despite the aid efforts, angry villagers have continued to protest against what they call "poor relief distribution".

Witnesses said crowds squatted on roads and blocked traffic to demand tents and blankets for their families.

"Nothing has reached us so far," says Reyaz Ahmed of Uri sector's high-altitude Garkote village. "We are dying of cold and lack of food," he said, adding the entire village had spent a third night out in open.

On Sunday Sonia Gandhi, the head of Singh's ruling Congress party, visited the quake-hit areas and pledged that the central and state government would provide all necessary relief and help rebuild homes.

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