NEW DELHI (REUTERS) - India's prime minister branded Thursday's attack by militants on an Indian police station and army camp in disputed Kashmir as "barbaric" but - without mentioning Pakistan - said it would not derail efforts to pursue peace through dialogue.

"This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace," Dr Manmohan Singh said in a statement. "Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue."

A group of militants dressed in Indian army uniforms killed eight people in the raid near the Pakistan border, Indian officials said.

Chief Minister for the state of Jammu and Kashmir said the militants had crossed the border from Pakistan the previous day.

Mr Omar Abdullah told reporters that the raid appeared designed to upset plans for a meeting in New York this week between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"Given the history, timing and location, the aim is to derail the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart," Mr Abdullah said. "There are forces that are inimical to peace and want to derail any peace process."

The two leaders are expected to discuss rising violence in the Kashmir region.

India has faced an insurgency in its part of Muslim-majority Kashmir since 1989 and has long accused Pakistan of supporting the militants fighting Indian rule.