Islamabad 9/20

For, the blast brought down the ceiling in a banquet room where there were about 200 to 300 people at a meal to break their Ramzaan fast.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and several other dignitaries were at the premier8217;s residence, located about half a kilometre away, for an iftar dinner at the time of the blast. Officials said the dignitaries had escaped unhurt. The Presidency, Supreme Court, Parliament and Pakistan Secretariat, which houses the offices of key ministries, are located along Constitution Avenue, in the Marriott8217;s neighbourhood.

The hotel has been bombed twice before 8212; in January last year, a suicide bomber killed himself and a security guard in an attack at the hotel shortly before an official function to mark India8217;s Republic Day 8212; but tonight8217;s blast was the most devastating in Islamabad since Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against Islamist militancy after 9/11.

The explosion came hours after Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, made his first address to Parliament a few hundred metres away, calling for terrorism to be rooted out.

The owner of the hotel, one of two five-star hotels in the capital, said the truck carrying the bomb had been stopped at the front barrier and guards at the gate exchanged fire with the attacker. 8220;Some shots were fired. One of our guards fired back, but in the meantime he detonated all the explosives. All the guards at the gate died,8221; said owner Sadruddin Hashwani.

As flames engulfed the hotel, which is popular with foreigners including diplomats 8212; the US and British embassies said all their staff were accounted for 8212; and also affluent Pakistanis, police said there were still people trapped inside.

At least one foreigner was killed and about five were wounded, hospital officials said. Up to six Saudi Arabians were missing, the Saudi Ambassador said. A Danish diplomat and three American nationals were among the injured, officials said.

Al Qaeda-linked militants based in hideouts at the Afghan border have launched a bloody campaign of bomb attacks in retaliation for offensives by Pakistan8217;s security forces in ethnic Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border.

The US, frustrated by an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, has also stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistan with six missile attacks and a helicopter-borne ground assault this month. The US strikes have angered many Pakistanis.

8220;This is terrorism and we have to fight it together as a nation,8221; Rehman Malik, Pakistan8217;s Interior Minister, told reporters at the hospital overflowing with the wounded as rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building.

Officials described the attack as a major security lapse as a truck packed with explosives had managed to get through the tight security arrangements around Constitution Avenue.

An emergency has been declared in all hospitals in Islamabad, including the premier Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

Zardari and Gilani strongly condemned the suicide blast and expressed shock and grief over the loss of innocent lives. They directed authorities to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report within 12 hours.

Reuters, with wire reports