"A peace process has started at Nandigram with an all-party meeting held at Tamluk, near Nandigram and it is expected to yield a positive result," Home Secretary P R Roy told reporters.

"We apprehend that arms and ammunition have been stockpiled at the villages and we will seize them," Roy said.

The overall situation there was reviewed by Chief Minister Buddehadev Bhattacharjee at a meeting with him and Chief Secretary A K Deb at Writers' Buildings, he said.

He said the police could now enter the villages in Nandigram, so far rendered inaccessible by the villagers who had dug up roads and placed boulders.

Three bodies of victims of Saturday night's violence had been recovered so far and the others were expected to be found with the police gaining access to the villages, he said.

Barring an incident in which police fired three rounds in the air to disperse a stone-throwing mob that left two policemen injured, Nandigram was, by and large, peaceful though tension prevails.