Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter, a US group that monitors al-Qaida messages, said the bombing was likely the work of the terror group or one of its affiliates.

He said al-Qaida called for attacks against Danish diplomatic facilities and personnel in a video last August, and repeated its threat in April.

"I urge and incite every Muslim who can harm Denmark to do so in support of the Prophet, God's peace and prayers be upon him, and in defense of his honorable stature," IntelCenter quoted al-Zawahri as saying in an April 21 video.

Monday's bombing follows al-Qaida attacks against the US Embassy in Yemen in March and another on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania in February, the group said.

Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal regions, said al-Qaida attacks tend to be more lethal than Monday's blast. Radical local clerics could have been behind it, although if it was a suicide bombing, it likely originated from the unruly border regions where al-Qaida and Taliban find sanctuary.

Even if the attack isn't linked to the tribal regions, the US and the West "will use this ... to say look, your policy (on peace deals) is not working," analyst Talat Masood said.

The Danish Embassy is located on a leafy street lined with plush villas housing diplomatic missions and residences, offices and private homes. Concrete barriers lined at least one end, but access was not closely controlled, according to an Islamabad resident who traveled the road the previous day.

Moeller said Denmark had increased security at several embassies, including Islamabad, in the past two years. In April, Denmark briefly evacuated staff from its embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of terror threats linked to the drawings.

(China Daily via agencies June 3, 2008)