Governor Hikmet Tan, who escaped injured, told reporters his car was badly damaged in the blast in the city of Van, some 90km west of the Iranian border, but he and his police escort managed to speed away from the downtown area where the attack occurred.

A second bomb was defused shortly afterwards, police spokesman Ramazan Er told a press conference in Ankara.

"Our impression is that the attack was carried out by the PKK", the Kurdish rebels of the former Kurdistan People's Party (PKK), renamed Kongra-Gel, the police spokesman said.

The attack came a month after Kurdish separatist rebels called off a truce, accusing Turkish forces of trying to wipe them out. Clashes in Turkey's southeast have since sharply increased.

Those killed and wounded were pedestrians on their way to work, he added.

"According to the information we have, the bomb which exploded in a car soon after the governor's car passed by was remote-controlled," Interior Ministry Abdulkadir Aksu told Anatolia news agency.

"As a result of this explosion, the car which contained the bomb was torn apart, two cars nearby were damaged and there is also damage to the windows and body of the governor's car," he said.

"This attack is aimed at disturbing the atmosphere of peace, order and security in our country. But everyone should stay assured that the atmosphere of peace will continue," he added.

Four Kurdish rights activists and former members of parliament, recently released from prison, also condemned Friday's attack in a statement sent to AFP.

"We condemn the attack... and extend our condolences to the victims," said the statement issued by Leyna Zana and three other former MPs released last month after 10 years in jail for alleged links with the PKK, pending an appeal of their case.

The PKK, a marxist group, led a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast until 1999 when it announced a unilateral truce following the capture of its leader Abdulah Ocalan. The fighting had left some 37,000 dead, most of them Kurds.

On June 1 the group cancelled its truce, saying it had become meaningless because of what it said were "annihilation operations" by Turkish security forces against its fighters.

The latest attack by suspected rebels killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded another three when rebels set off a mine on a road in Van province on Monday.

A year ago, Kurdish rebels attempted to ambush another Turkish governor, this time on a mountain road in Tunceli province. Two soldiers in the leading escort vehicle were killed in the exchange of gunfire.

The Turkish government has repeatedly called on the United States to intervene against former PKK rebels entrenched in mountainous bases in northern Iraq, but Washington, which has included the group on its terrorist list, has declined to do so, citing more pressing security concerns in Iraq.

Turkey which maintains its own army observation teams in northern Iraq to track the rebels has in the past carried out search-and-destroy operations on the Iraqi side of the border.