A car bomb outside the Marriott Hotel and U.S. consulate in Karachi killed at least two people and wounded 18 on Thursday, security and hospital officials said.

The bomb exploded on a road used for parking behind the hotel and comes just days before U.S. President George W. Bush was due to visit Pakistan.

Brigadier Taqdees Lodhi, an officer of the paramilitary Rangers, said the explosives had been hidden in a parked car, and several cars were ablaze in the street. The blast occurred about 30 metres (100 feet) from the consulate.

"It was a bomb blast," said Shazia Khan, a spokeswoman for the Marriott.

Police said two people were killed, one of them a security guard.

A Reuters reporter at the scene saw wounded being carried away by ambulance, including a child who appeared to be a foreigner. Hospitals had received at least 18 wounded, doctors said.

Witnesses said they heard a second, smaller blast but it was unclear whether that too was a bomb blast.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Pakistani man calls for help after an explosion near the U.S. consulate in Karachi March 2, 2006. (REUTERS)