Afghan bomb wounds three outside Pakistan consulate

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A bicycle bomb outside thePakistani consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat woundeda police guard and two civilians on Thursday, a Reuters witnesssaid.

Afghanistan has suffered scores of Taliban suicide androadside bombs that have killed more than 200 civilians alreadythis year, but Herat is relatively peaceful and most violencethere analysts say is carried out by armed gangs and criminals.

The explosives were attached to a bicycle near a policekiosk outside the consulate, wounding a police guard and awoman and a child. There was no damage to the consulate.

Pakistan condemned the bombing.

"The government of Pakistan holds the government ofAfghanistan responsible for the safety and security of itspersonnel in its embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat,Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif," Pakistan's ForeignOffice said in a statement.

"We hope that the government of Afghanistan will take itsresponsibility seriously. The ambassador of Afghanistan isbeing summoned to the Foreign Office to convey the graveconcerns of the government of Pakistan," it said.

A suicide bomb killed 58 people outside the Indian Embassyin the Afghan capital on July 7, an attack Afghan officialsblamed on Pakistani agents.

Pakistan is unsettled by the growing influence of its rivalIndia in Afghanistan, analysts say, but Islamabad has deniedany interference in its western neighbour and says it onlywants a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

Pakistan had requested greater security at its diplomaticmissions in Afghanistan, an embassy official in Kabul said.

Herat is one of the most peaceful and prosperous cities inAfghanistan with a new road to the nearby Iranian borderboosting trade. An Iranian-funded railway to the border is alsounder construction.

(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)