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SRINAGAR, India, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Eighteen people were killed in fresh separatist violence in Indian Kashmir as the man who is to head the state's new government pledged on Tuesday to try to bring "peace with dignity" to the region.

Mufti Mohammad Syed, named to lead the coalition of his Kashmir-based People's Democratic Party and India's main opposition Congress party, was due to meet Jammu and Kashmir's governor on Wednesday.

Syed told reporters in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, that the swearing-in ceremony would be held on November 2.

Syed favours talks with separatists and militants battling Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory to end a 13-year-old rebellion that has claimed at least 35,000 lives.

"The expectations are high. I pray to God to give me courage to come up to the expectations of the people," Syed said.

Congress and the PDP, which toppled the National Conference in state elections this month, control 36 of the state assembly's 87 seats. The National Conference, which dominated the state for decades, won 28 seats.

The coalition has pledged to free political prisoners, investigate custodial deaths and "heal the physical, psychological and emotional wounds" of the anti-Indian revolt.

Nearly a dozen groups are battling Indian rule in Kashmir.

India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending Muslim rebels to fight its rule in the Muslim-majority region, a dispute that was at the centre of a 10-month military standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan denies the charge.

Syed's pledge came as police said 18 people had died in separate militant violence across the region since Monday night.

The dead included three paramilitary policemen in a rebel attack on a patrol in Srinagar. A paramilitary soldier was killed in a separate assault in Srinagar.

The banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohamed claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Jaish is one of two groups India blames for a raid on its parliament last December that sparked the standoff which brought India and Pakistan close to war in June.

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