Eight legal experts appointed by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Friday met officials including Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil to press for a repeal of the 1958 legislation, the group said in a statement.

The act allows the military to arrest without warrant and to shoot-to-kill in disputed Kashmir and seven insurgency-hit northeastern states.

"We informed the Indian government that there was a broad consensus that recommendations of the review committee to repeal the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) should be given effect," said former South African chief justice and panel chairman Arthur Chaskalson.

A government forum last year also called for the scrapping of the law.

Premier Manmohan Singh promised a review of the law after large protests when Indian soldiers allegedly raped and murdered a 32-year-old rights activist last July in troubled Manipur state.

The AFSA, originally designed to stem strife in India's remote northeast, was later extended to Kashmir where Islamic separatist militancy has claimed more than 44,000 lives since 1989.