NEW DELHI India launched on Saturday its biggest military exercise in over a decade near the border with Pakistan, the Defense Ministry said.

About 50,000 troops and more than 100 combat planes are taking part in the maneuvers aimed at equipping soldiers to cope with a nuclear, biological or chemical weapons strike.

"The main exercise has begun, it is a five-day war game," Reuters quoted an army spokesman as saying.

The government said Pakistan had been informed about the exercises in the Bikaner sector, some 250km (155 miles) from the border, but Islamabad said there was no advance notice.

Tensions between nuclear-capable India and Pakistan have been running high since they came to the brink of a third conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir two years ago.

The army spokesman said he was not at liberty to give details except that it was a training exercise in which soldiers would practice drills and procedures against a nuclear backdrop.

Officials said the desert exercises named "Complete Victory" will include a mock battle involving ground troops, fighter planes and commandos.

Fighter planes will test their ability to launch deep strike missions and the army's elite commandos and paratroopers will aim at seizing "enemy" assets as part of the mock war games.