In a setback to India's defence scientists, the testfiring of 2,000-km range nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni II off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa has resulted in a failure, Defense Ministry sources said on Tuesday.

"The first night testfiring yesterday from Orissa's Wheeler's Island 10 km from Balasore inside the Bay of Bengal failed. This was for the first time, a missile was testfired at night. But the test failed to meet many of the required parametres," the sources said.

The two-stage solid propelled Agni II missile has a launch weight of 17 tons and approximately 20 meters in height. It can carry a payload of one ton over 2,000 km.

The Agni missile is a family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles developed by India under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.

The local newspaper Times of India said the liftoff and the first stage separation was smooth, but it faltered just before the second stage separation and "behaved erratically" by deviating from its coordinated path.

The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro- optic instruments and a naval ship, said the report.

The Agni missile family comprises three deployed variants: Agni I short range ballistic missile, 700 to 800 km range; Agni II medium range ballistic missile, 2,500 km range.; Agni III intermediate range ballistic missile, 3,500 km range. Agni V intercontinental ballistic missile, 5,000 to 6,000 km range is currently under development.