66 killed in train blast fire.

AT least 66 passengers died after an explosion on a train from India to Pakistan started a fire that swept through two coaches.

Dozens more people were injured.

Authorities say two suitcases packed with unexploded crude bombs and bottles of petrol were found in train cars not hit in the attack, leading them to believe the fire was set off by an identical explosive device.

"This is an act of sabotage," Railway Minister La loo Prasad told reporters in Patna, India. "This is an attempt to derail the improving relationship between India and Pakistan."

India's junior home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said the homemade bombs were not powerful and were simply intended to start a fire on the train a day before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was to arrive in New Delhi for talks.

Jaiswal called the attack part of a "conspiracy to disturb communal harmony, India's stability and to disturb the peace process between India and Pakistan."

The fire engulfed two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, one of two train links between rival India and Pakistan.

Because of security concerns, the train is kept sealed - with locked doors and barred windows - from New Delhi to the border, and passengers may have been trapped inside the burning cars.

The fire broke out just before the train reached the station in the village of Dewana, 50 miles north of New Delhi.

People who live near the tracks rushed to the train with buckets of water.