A foreign ministry statement said three planes would leave for Iran on Tuesday carrying 10,000 blankets, 1,000 tents and doctors to run a 75-bed mobile hospital for a month.

"In the first step we would set up the 75-bed hospital in Iran and we are carrying generator sets, kerosine and we would not need any assistance from Iran to run this hospital," a spokesman for the Indian army's medical corps added.

The foreign ministry said 600 tonnes of high-protein biscuits have already reached Iran for the quake victims.

Iran has appealed for international assistance after the earthquake Friday devastated the historic southeastern city of Bam.

The last quake with such a high death toll was in India in January 2001 when 25,000 people were killed and 166,000 injured in the western state of Gujarat.

Another one million people were left homeless in the Gujarat earthquake which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.

TERRA.WIRE