New Delhi: An Indian doctor has admitted to illegally aborting 260 female foetuses, after police found dozens of tiny bones in the basement of his maternity clinic in the outskirts of New Delhi, authorities said on Friday.

Police and health officials discovered about 35 bones -- mainly pieces of skulls and femurs -- in an underground septic tank after raiding Ajay Kumar Singh's maternity clinic in the town of Gurgaon.

Female infanticide and foeticide, though illegal in India,are still prevalent in some rural areas as boys are traditionally preferred to girls as breadwinners, and families have to pay huge dowries to marry off their daughters.

"He confessed that since '94, he aborted around 260 female foetuses. We suspect it could be more," said Ramphal Singh,head of the local police station.

The accused declined to comment. "At this point of time I would not like to say anything,"he told Reuters by telephone from the police station.

Confessions made in police custody are not accepted by Indian law, unless they are repeated in court.

Police said Singh, believed to be a general practitioner, possessed a fake medical certificate and was practising under a false name. Last year, Singh was found guilty of stocking medicines illegally and sentenced to 18 months in jail but did not serve the term as his appeal is still pending in a higher court.

The government says around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents -- either before or immediately after birth -- over the past 20 years.

In February, police in central India recovered 390 pieces of bones of newly born babies or foetuses from the backyard of a Christian missionary hospital which they said could be linked to female foeticide and infanticide.