Troops spearheaded rescue and relief operations yesterday in Indian Kashmir, some sifting through rubble with bare hands, as ruling Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi toured the devastated region where nearly 600 people died.

As the air force flew in aid, doctors and engineers, thousands of soldiers joined forces with local people in a desperate search for loved ones feared trapped under the rubble.

"I've come to share your grief," Sonia told the crowds in Uri, one of the worst-hit spots close to the de facto border with Pakistan which has been rattled by a dozen aftershocks since Saturday's massive earthquake.

"Whatever help you need to rebuild your homes and shops, the central and

state governments will provide," she said after flyingin byhelicopter.

"The entire nation is with the people who have suffered."

Some 300 people died in Uri alone out of a provisional state-wide death toll of 583, Jammu and Kashmir government chief secretary Vijaya Bakaya told AFP.

Some 1,500 houses were destroyed in Uri by the quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. About 90 percent of the families living in the town, which has a population of 30,000, were affected by the quake.

Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by Defence Minister Pranab Mukhe-rjee, army chief Joginder Jaswant Singh and state chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayed, visited the injured in a makeshift medical camp as well as what remains of the town's main market.