Bush To Visit Pakistan Despite Bomb Blast   
6:44 AM, 03 Mar 2006    

The United States President, George Bush, says he will visit Pakistan despite a bomb blast outside the US consulate in the southern city of Karachi yesterday which killed an American diplomat.

Mr Bush says terrorists and killers are not going to prevent him from going to Pakistan.

He was speaking after talks with the Indian prime minister in New Delhi.

Mr Bush said he would hold talks with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on the need to step up the US-led "war on terror," during his first ever trip to the country.

While security officials are comfortable that the necessary precautions are in place for the Bush's visit, the US National Security Adviser Steve Hadley acknowledged that it was not "a risk-free undertaking."


U.S. Diplomat Killed in Pakistan Bombing

Mar 2, 10:31 AM (ET)

By ZARAR KHAN

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - A suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an American diplomat in Pakistan's largest city, killing the diplomat and three other people before President Bush's visit to Pakistan. Fifty-two people were wounded.

The blast near the U.S. Consulate and the Marriott Hotel propelled cars into the air and flung charred wreckage as far as 200 yards. It shattered windows at the consulate and on all 10 floors of the hotel, and damaged a nearby naval hospital.

Bush condemned the attack and said "terrorists and killers" would not prevent him from going to Pakistan on the final leg of his tour of South Asia.