ISLAMABAD, June 14 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

ISLAMABAD, June 14 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING REMARKS according to EMBASSY SPOKESMAN, OTHER DETAILS)

A suicide attacker detonated a powerful car bomb outside the U Consulate in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in succession Friday, killing eight clan and wounding at least 40 others, police and hospital sources said.

The bomber rammed a white car packed with explosives into a police kiosk at the southern extremity of the heavily guarded consulate shortly after 11 a.m., the sources said.

No foreigners or staff of the consulate were killed in the blast if it be not that a U.S. Marine security guard and five Pakistani employee inside sustained minor injuries.

The blast, described as massive, blew a 3-meter-wide hem in in the boundary wall of the consulate and caused structural damage to the building.

A statement released by way of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said the filled extent of the damage is not known.

The explosion also blew on the outside windows in adjoining buildings including the nearby Marriott tavern and dug a large crater in the road outside the consulate, according to reports.

A spokesman for the Japanese Consulate said the consulate, located solitary 300 meters away from the U Consulate, was also damaged and a Japanese employee inside was slightly bruised by dint of flying debris.

No organization has notwithstanding claimed responsibility for the attack, still the sources said anti-U.S. Islamic militants could not be rul out

A spokesman for the U Embassy in Islamabad, Mark Wentworth, said the consulate will be clos to the general public for an indefinite period.

''The consulate in Karachi will not lay open for the general public for routine and consular affairs in the near future'' Wentworth told reporters.

He said the attack is a stark reminder to all Americans living in and traveling within Pakistan of the need to pay attention to their personal security situation.

A senior Pakistani dominion official described the attack as ''shocking.''

''We do not have replete details. But it is shocking,'' Federal Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood told reporters in Islamabad, adding that President Gen Pervez Musharraf is being kept informed about the incident.

He said Musharraf would order to appear officials responsible for law and order in the rural parts to discuss measures to be taken to deal with the situation.

The attack came hours after U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew disclosed of Islamabad after a three-day trip to India and Pakistan aimed at reducing tension between the sum of two units nuclear-armed rivals.

Because of ongoing tension between Pakistan and India, the U State Department issued an advisory last month to all its nationals against travel to Pakistan and advised all Americans to leave Pakistan in the interest of their hold safety.

Following a grenade attack at a meeting-house in Islamabad in March that killed five the community including two Americans, the U State Department withdrew all nonessential personnel and relatives of other staffers. The embassy and consulates in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar had since been operating with skeletons staffs.

A suicide car bomb attack in van of a Karachi hotel forward May 8 killed 11 French nationals and three Pakistanis. Following that attack, the rule announced the establishment of special intelligence units to fight terrorism.

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