Three die in Pakistan suicide bombing

US officials in Pakistan have said that no one from their Peshawar consulate was killed, but they were investigating whether any US citizens had died.

Earlier the provincial information minister said two Americans were dead.

At least 19 people were injured when the bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Peshawar is situated near volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operate in the area and the city has been targeted frequently in bombings in recent years - though US officials are said to be protected by extensive security measures.

Monday's blast took place after the vehicle had left the US consulate, police said.

A witness told BBC the car in which the explosives were planted rammed into a four-wheel-drive vehicle in Aabdara Road area - close to the offices of the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, and a registration centre for Afghan refugees.

Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the attack was a bid to "to terrorise the foreigners".

A local journalist who saw a US passport inside the targeted four-wheel-drive said it carried the stamp of the US Consulate and was in the name of an apparent employee of the consulate.

But staff at the US embassy in Islamabad denied any Americans associated with the consulate were dead.

Militants in Pakistan, and many Pakistanis, are angry at US involvement in the war in Afghanistan and US drone attacks which have left hundreds dead, mainly in the volatile border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.