The nuclear rivals exchanged tents, food and medical supplies after army commanders and government officials from the two sides met and shook hands across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC).

"This is a huge day in the history of both Kashmir and the subcontinent," said Sardar Mohammed Farooq, the deputy commissioner of Pakistani Kashmir.

Kashmiris themselves were not allowed to cross the border to check on family members after the October 8 disaster because security-conscious India and Pakistan had failed to exchange lists of names.

Hundreds of angry Pakistani villagers surged towards the Indian side of the LoC, and police launched tear gas shells and let off volleys of automatic gunfire in the air to hold back the crowd.

Two men and two children who tried to run across a recently cleared minefield towards the LoC were tackled by police and bundled into a van.

The outbreak of unrest during what was meant to be a carefully choreographed ceremony highlighted complaints by Kashmiris that they have not been able to see relatives for decades, and also that quake aid has been insufficient.

Indian officials said they were sending 25 truckloads of relief goods to the Pakistani side -- the area worst hit by the October 8 quake, which killed more than 74,000 people -- including tents, tarpaulins, food and medicine.

White tape had earlier been laid along the LoC at the crossing -- at the town of Titrinote on the Pakistani side and Chakan da bagh in the Indian zone -- and both sides had laid out red carpets.

A sign on the Indian side read, "We have not opened the LoC, we have opened hearts."

Civilians may be able to cross by November 14, said B.R. Sharma, divisional commissioner for the Jammu district of Indian Kashmir, after shaking hands with Pakistan's Farooq at the ceremony.

"It's definitely a very historic and very important moment," he told reporters.

At least two more crossing points along the frontier are due to open within the next week, but it is still unclear when all five of the points proposed last month by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf will open.

After the tear gas incident, local separatist leaders gave speeches to the crowd. They urged them to stay where they were until the Indian and Pakistan authorities allow them to cross the de facto border.

"They must be allowed across right now. This is the right of all Kashmiris," Zulfiqar Naqvi, a district leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, told the crowd. The group wants Kashmir to be an independent state.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said many Kashmiris were unaware of the procedures to cross the frontier.

"Because of the widespread devastation the information about crossing procedures took some time to trickle down," ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

"Lots of people did not realise that they would require application forms and clearances to be able to cross over," she said.

"That is why not many people applied for permission to cross over. Instead they just walked up to the Line of Control to that point to go over."

In the Pakistani Kashmir state capital Muzaffarabad many people gathered outside the administration office to get application forms for permits, but only 50 received them, local official Liaqat Naqvi told AFP.

Kashmir has been at the core of the half-century of strained relations between India and Pakistan and has caused two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Politicians and officials on both sides, including Musharraf, have said the opening of the frontier could pay peace dividends beyond the immediate benefits to quake victims.

Increasing contact between their peoples was one of the key confidence-building measures agreed by India and Pakistan when they launched their slow-moving peace process in January 2004.

In April the two sides allowed the first official opening of the Line of Control by starting a fortnightly bus service to reunite families in the Indian and Pakistani zones.

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