Motorcycle bomb in Pakistan's Baluchistan wounds 13

QUETTA, Pakistan, Mar 7 (Reuters) A bomb planted on a motorcycle wounded 13 people, including a pro-government tribal elder and three children, in southwest Pakistan's gas-rich Baluchistan province, police said.

Nationalist tribal militants in Pakistan's biggest but poorest province have been waging a low-key insurgency for decades for a greater share of profits from gas resources.

They have no links with Islamist militants battling government forces in other parts of the country, security officials say.

The explosion took place today in Sui town, the country's main gas-producing area about 250 km southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta, as the tribal leader, Mohammad Bakhsh Bugti, was passing in a vehicle, police said.

''It looks like a remote control device planted on a motorcycle,'' police officer Haider Ali said by telephone.

Ali declined to comment on the motive but a security official said Bugti could have been the target. Bugti and two of his relatives were in critical condition, a hospital official said.

The Baluchistan militants regularly attack gas and other energy infrastructure, transport links and security posts.

They accuse the government of exploiting the province's resources without sharing the benefits among its people.

President Pervez Musharraf has promised to develop the province of sparsely populated deserts and mountains bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

He has also announced an amnesty for militants who surrender and has appealed to tribal leaders to help, while vowing tough action against militants who refuse to give up.

REUTERS PA HS1640