In New Delhi, the global environmental group Greenpeace, demanding better conditions for survivors, acted out a recreation of the disaster which struck the central Indian town of Bhopal just before midnight on December 2, 1984.

Some 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate gas billowed from the Union Carbide plant, located 740 kilometres (460 miles) from the capital.

In Bhopal, a museum dedicated to victims of the tragedy was inaugurated Friday. Pressure groups fighting for the survivors organised a public meeting and held a torch rally. And children born with deformities in the city following the disaster led a protest march to the industrial site.

Organisers said activists and survivors would Saturday burn effigies of Warren Anderson, the then Union Carbide chief, and symbols of the Indian government. They would also hold prayers in front of the disaster site.

At the Greenpeace protest, survivor Champa Devi Shukla, vice president of the Bhopal Gas Affected Workers' Union, recalled the night which changed her life. "It was horrible. I have no words for it. As we fled our homes, we felt our lungs would burst. We wanted to die," Shukla told AFP. Eight years after the tragedy, Shukla's eldest son committed suicide, no longer able to cope with his badly damaged lungs. Over the next five years she lost her husband and another son to ailments brought on by the gas leak.

For the survivors, the suffering has yet to end.

"My four-year-old daughter was born without any lips or nose. The elder daughter is still paralytic. No one wants to marry the girls there, as they do not menstruate because of the toxic water," Shukla said. Activists say that around 20,000 people living near the site of the Union Carbide plant are still drinking contaminated water.

"The toxic effect has been such that mercury and lead contamination have found their way into the breast milk of those living in the gas-hit localities near the Carbide plant," said Satinath Sarangi, an activist who runs a clinic to treat the gas victims.

He said the children of the residents were underdeveloped with smaller heads, shorter limbs and thinner bodies than normal.

"We want to remind the government that similar disasters are waiting to happen across the country because of the presence of industrial wastes in the environment," said Greenpeace media officer Namrata Chowdhary.

Survivors have also been battling for medical care and financial compensation for years.

Environmental activists want Dow Chemicals, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, to clean up the site which they say contains thousands of tonnes of toxic chemicals.

"We are also fighting for the clean-up of industrial waste to international standards at the site and adequate compensation for the survivors," said Greenpeace campaigner Vinuta Gopal.

Dow says all liabilities were met when Union Carbide paid a 470-million-dollar settlement. The company says it has no responsibility for cleaning up the site or for any toxins still leaching into the ground.

More than 3,500 people died immediately from the gas leak but the total death toll has climbed to over 15,000 today, according to government figures.

Bhopal rights activists say the real figure is double that while Amnesty International estimated last year that between 22,000 and 25,000 people had died as a result of the tragedy.

Officials say about 800,000 people still suffer from various after-effects of inhaling the poisonous fumes.

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