Troops clearing destroyed frontier roads said four of the bodies dug out of the rubble had identification tags and were handed over to their relatives at Red Bridge, 112 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

"Because of the winter the bodies had not decomposed," said trooper Shaukat Ahmed at a local hospital near the badly-damaged Red Bridge.

Scores of road builders enlisted by the Indian military perished in massive landslides triggered by the 7.6-force quake on October 8 which killed 54,000 people in Pakistan-ruled Kashmir and more than 1,3000 in the Indian zone of the divided Himalayan region.

Mohammed Aslam trekked across boulder-strewn roads to reach Red Bridge after receiving news that soldiers had dug out the body of his brother, Muzaffar Ahmed Khan.

"We had given him up for dead but in this fasting month (of Ramadan), Allah showed us a little mercy by giving us at least his body," he said after accepting the shroud-covered corpse of Khan, one of the five killed road builders.

Relatives of the dead said they would not delay the funerals any further.

Officials said one worker had not been identified but added he belonged to one of the construction teams of Indian military-funded Border Road Organisation, which now faces the Herculean task of rebuilding blocked Himalayan roads and collapsed bridges.

Red Bridge derives its name from the colour it is painted and was a key link to the final army post named Command Post in Indian Kashmir and is five kilometres (miles) from the militarised Line of Control (LoC) which divides the two zones of Kashmir.

Army officials said falling boulders posed a threat to army vehicles carrying relief to far-flung areas. The military has also started using mule trains to cart much-needed blankets and tents to survivors.

More than 5,000 people were injured and another 150,000 rendered homeless by the tremors in Indian Kashmir.

Mounds of rubble dotted the landscape where villagers lined up for relief as army helicopters dropped emergency supplies at the higher reaches cut off by the quake.

P.K. Singh, Indian army commander of devastated Uri distict, said the hurdles would affect the establishment of a relief center along the LoC at Command Post where affected families from the two side could meet.

"We were ready from October 25. They (the governments) have to work out the modalities," Singh told AFP.

India offered to open three relief centres along the LoC by Tuesday while Pakistan on its part said it wanted to set up five such points. The two sides are scheduled to meet in Islamabad on Friday to work out the modalities.

Along this 10-kilometre (six-mile) stretch, villagers with empty sacks trekked Wednesday for aid from a relief camp as soldiers manned 105-millimetre howitzer guns near a series of bunkers.

Military trucks were seen ferrying soldiers armed with machineguns on narrow, treacherous roads littered with snapped power cables and poles in the zone where giant landslides had sliced imposing mountains almost into half.

Rashid Namad, 52, stood on the road with tin sheets given to him but said he did not know what to do with them.

"I do not know how to build a house. I am not sure how I will take these sheets as the army is not allowing vehicles on the road due to the bad conditions," said Namad.

Mohammad Sadiq said his mother was killed while visiting her other son living some two kilometres across the LoC in Pakistan.

"I do not know how my relatives are living. From here it looks like a good 100 kilometers (away)," Sadiq said.