Madhavan Nair, who heads the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told AFP that the damage caused by Monday's fire to the Sriharikota space centre in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh would not disrupt their space projects.

"This is not at all going to affect any of our space programmes," said Nair.

He said he had asked a seven-member commitee of scientists, both serving and retired, to probe the cause of the fire and submit their findings within six weeks.

"We have asked them to submit the first report within a week and the complete report within six weeks," said Nair, who travelled to Sriharikota late Monday from Bangalore to supervise the rescue and clean-up operations.

Six people were killed and three others seriously injured when fuel being loaded for tests on a satellite launch rocket exploded, sparking a huge fire.

"Two people who were admitted in the hospital are still in a serious condition as they have more than 50 percent burns," said Nair.

Nair earlier told reporters that the fire broke out as a rocket motor was being tested in the solid propellant space booster plant at the Satish Dhawan station.

"This seems to have happened while a propellant was being prepared for transportation. The propellant... caught fire and caused severe damage to the building in which the operations were going on," Nair said.

An ISRO press statement said the rocket motor was holding about 14.5 tonnes of solid propellant.

"During ... operations the propellant inadvertently caught fire. Six (people) who could not escape from the building were rapidly asphyxiated and burnt of intense heat and fumes," the statement said.

It said the centre had two such facilities for testing "to meet any contingencies and hence ISRO's (space) programme is not expected to suffer on account of damages to the building."

Rajiv Lochan, assistant scientific secretary in ISRO, said initial estimates showed building repairs at Sriharikota would take five months.

"The debris has been cleared. Initial estimates indicate the damage is nearly seven million rupees (155,000 dollars)," said Lochan.

"None of our programmes will be affected as we have moved the testing to an identical facility at the site," he added.

Indian missile experts, meanwhile, described it as "providence" that the development of the nuclear-capable Agni ballistic missile, first tested as a prototype in 1989, had been kept away from the island space centre.

"What happened there points at negligence and it is a providence that we have kept our civilian and military applications of space technology separate," a senior military scientist said.

The centre began operations in 1971 for the launch of rockets involved in India's domestic space programme.

The area surrounding Sriharikota is a high-security zone and kept under constant watch by Indian security forces.

A new Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, jointly being developed with Russia, and a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will be launched from the site this year as scheduled, added ISRO.

The space centre is used to launch India's launch vehicles' remote sensing and communication satellites.

It also houses the launch vehicle assembly and service facilities such as real time data processing and flight safety.

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