The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agencies

Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed venue at the last minute, officials say.

Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have been there.

He told journalists it would have been "a great catastrophe", but did not say why the dinner plans were changed.

A suicide bomb devastated the Marriott on Saturday, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 266.

The Czech Ambassador to Pakistan was also killed in the blast, it was confirmed on Sunday.

President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were planning to dine at the Marriott, Malik said, before a late change of plan.

The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved Rehman Malik Pakistani interior ministry. "The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership - for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs - at the Marriott that day," Malik told reporters.

"The president and the prime minister changed the venue to the prime minister's house. The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved."

In other developments, it was reported that Pakistani troops fired on US helicopters that violated Pakistani airspace near the border with Afghanistan on Sunday night.

Tensions between the US and Pakistan have risen in recent weeks amid US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat Taleban militants in the region. And in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an Afghan diplomat was kidnapped and his driver killed, reports said.

The heavily guarded Islamabad Marriott was attacked at about 2000 (1500 GMT) on Saturday. CCTV footage of the moments before the blast show a six-wheeler lorry ramming the security barrier at the hotel gate.

The bomb - believed to have been detonated in the lorry - left a six-metre (20ft) crater.

Pakistan's government has pledged to take targeted action against militants.

Interior Ministry adviser Rehman Malik said raids would be carried out in some "hotspots" near the Afghan border.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said one of its diplomats was missing.

No group has taken responsibility for the attack, but Malik suggested responsibility lay with al-Qaeda and Taleban militants based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on the Afghan border.

"In previous attacks, all roads led to Fata," he said.

The BBC's Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says the attack might have been retaliation for army bombardments of suspected Taleban targets with jet fighters. British Airways has cancelled two flights to Pakistan "in light of the security situation".

"I do not believe this is a breakdown in security. The attackers had disguised the truck well as it was covered with a tarpaulin and loaded with bricks and gravel," Malik said.