LONDON - A Union Carbide Corp. executive was quoted by a British newspaper as saying the 1984 poison gas leak disaster in Bhopal , India, that killed more than 2,000 people was probably not an accident.

The Guardian on Friday quoted Jackson Browning, Union Carbide's vice president in charge of health, safety and environmental affairs, as saying: "We have all but ruled out anything but a deliberate act."

Browning was addressing an international chemical industry conference in London on Thursday.

Besides the deaths, 60,000 people were treated in hospitals after methyl isocynate, a by-product of pesticide manufacturing, leaked from Union Carbide's plant in Bhopal on Dec. 3 , 1984.

Union Carbide has said the disaster occurred because water was improperly put into a storage tank at the plant.

The newspaper reported Browning said that Union Carbide scientists now had established that the introduction of from 120 to 240 gallons of water into the tank could not have been accidental. According to the paper, he said the water, which caused pressure to build up, resulting in the gas leak, was put into the tank by unknown people.

Tom Failla, a spokesman at Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury, Conn., said Saturday that Browning's statements reiterated reports the company issued in March and July.

"In both cases we said that the possibility of a deliberate act was very high and that it was highly improbable that it (the accident) was inadvertent because of the large amount of water introduced into the tank," he said.

The newspaper said Browning conceded that a series of violations of safety regulations had taken place at the plant since July 1984.

The Guardian reported that until now, Union Carbide had said introduction of water into the storage tank could have been inadvertent.

People representing disaster victims said Union Carbide had been reducing staff and cutting back on safety procedures at the plant before the disaster.