Gandhi, who turns 59 on Friday, will visit the quake-hit Poonch, Baramulla and Kupwara regions, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted a statement from her office as saying.

"She will spend time with the affected families," the statement said.

Gandhi first visited Indian Kashmir a day after the quake killed more than 1,300 there. It also claimed more than 73,000 lives in neighbouring Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir.

The Indian Express newspaper said Gandhi would present gifts to quake-affected children and women in Poonch and Uri.

Both regions are close to the militarised Line of Control that divides Kashmir into India and Pakistani zones and have been rattled by dozens of aftershocks.

The report quoted sources as saying that Gandhi wants to stay with the quake survivors in Uri on the night of December 9 "so that she could convey the message that she and the Congress party were concerned about them."

India's Congress party took control of the state government in Kashmir last month as part of a power-sharing deal with coalition partners who ran the state for half of the six-year term.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited the region two days after Gandhi, has pledged nearly 150 million dollars to rebuild Kashmir.

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