WASHINGTON, May 26: The US State Department said on Wednesday that the US consul-general was not the target of two car-bomb blasts in Karachi that killed a policeman and injured over 30 people. Both the blasts occurred about 150 yards from the official residence of the US consul-general in the city.

A State Department official told reporters in Washington that the Pak-American Cultural Centre (PACC), the apparent target of the blasts, was a privately run English language school and had no links to the US government.

He said that information received from the US and Pakistani officials in Karachi confirmed that the bombs were aimed at the school and not the residence of the American consul-general.

"No US citizen was injured in the blast and no American worked at the school," the official said. He said the school catered mainly to students seeking to improve their English language skills and the bombers might have been misled by its name.

AFP adds: The US warned the blasts were a grim sign that so-called 'soft targets' in Pakistan remained vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Referring to the target (the PACC), spokesman Richard Boucher remarked: "That's the initial impression." He said a guard at the US consul's residence was among the wounded but was expected to recover. "We deplore the attack," he said.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Islamabad and the consulate in Karachi told Americans in Pakistan that they should review their security precautions in light of the attack which they said was an indication that terrorists continued to look for unofficial or 'soft' targets to hit. In a notice, the embassy said the threat was particularly high in Sindh and Balochistan.