Pakistan army kills Swat rebels

A suicide bomber drove a vehicle at a police checkpoint

The Pakistan army says it has killed at least 35 militants in clashes in the north-western Swat Valley. At least two soldiers also died, the army said.

The fighting came hours after a suicide bomber killed at least eight policemen in the region by driving a vehicle laden with explosives at a check-point.

Taleban forces said they had launched the attack and would carry out more if the army did not halt its operations.

Militant violence is a major challenge for Pakistan's new leaders.

The ruling coalition is struggling to nominate a candidate for president to replace Pervez Musharraf, who resigned on Monday after nearly a decade in power.

The biggest party, the PPP, nominated its leader, Asif Zardari, but its main coalition partner, the PML-N, is not in favour of giving him the job.

'Scattered limbs'

So powerful was the blast in Swat that it severely damaged adjacent shops and houses, Pakistani TV channel ARY OneWorld reported.

Severed limbs lay scattered at the scene, the Dubai-based private channel says.

A spokesman for the Islamist militant group Tehrik-e-Taleban told the Associated Press his group had carried out the attack.

"We had warned the government to target police and the army if it didn't stop operations against us in Swat," Muslim Khan said by telephone.

"The government ignored and continued attacking our position."

The spokesman vowed more attacks if the government did not halt army operations in the area, once a popular tourist destination.

Thursday's twin suicide bomb attacks on the ordnance factory in the town of Wah, near the capital Islamabad, were the deadliest attack on a military site in Pakistan's history.

On Tuesday, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan.

Presidential race

Pakistan's president is chosen by the two chambers of the national parliament and the country's four provincial elections.

An election will be held on 6 September.

Senior PPP members reached a unanimous decision to nominate Mr Zardari on Friday.

The PPP and PML-N have been discussing ways to reduce the power of the presidency but if Mr Zardari gets the job, it is not clear if such reforms will go ahead.

He took over as PPP leader after his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December.

Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N, prefers what he calls a consensus president.