GWADAR, May 6: Hundreds of Chinese and Pakistani workers resumed work on the Gwadar deep-sea port project on Thursday amid tight security after a deadly bombing that killed three Chinese technicians.

Work on the dam project was suspended after the Monday bombing. Full-scale activity resumed at the project site on Thursday with helmeted Chinese and Pakistanis working side by side under scorching sun. Elite Marines guarded the port site.

A Chinese worker said he and his colleagues would not be intimidated. "We are sorry for the loss of life but we are back at work," he said. "We are not afraid."

Security was tight, with vehicles carrying Chinese workers accompanied by police escorts through Gwadar's narrow, dusty streets. Police checked cars and made house-to-house inquiries.

"Maximum efforts are being made to guard our Chinese friends in their residential area, places of work and at the port," provincial police chief Shoaib Suddle told Reuters.

Gwadar Mayor Baboo Gulab said the bombing would not affect the port project or a highway being built to link it to Karachi. "The bombing was a very bad incident but the projects will continue.

We are impressed by the Chinese response. They promised not to stop work and now we can see it going on at full steam." Police have detained 17 people in connection with the attack, which officials blamed on "terrorists".

They have yet to make a formal arrest. Local speculation has focused on extremists opposed to the pro-US government, provincial nationalists angered at being sidelined from the project and smugglers with connections to Iran who are concerned that the new port will cut into their business.

A relatively unknown group, the Balochistan Liberation Front, phoned local newspaper offices in Quetta to claim responsibility for the bombing and vow more attacks. "Non-Balochistanis should not feel sale in Gwadar or anywhere else in the province," a man identifying himself only as Colonel Doda told a newspaper.

Police said they could not say if the front had carried out the attack. It has claimed responsibility for past bombings in Quetta but authorities have not taken these claims seriously.

Officials praised the commitment of the Chinese workers and said attempts to disrupt the project, which is due for completion in April 2005, would not succeed. "The Chinese are very brave and hard working people," said a port authority official. "The first phase will be completed ahead of schedule."

Around 400 Chinese are working in Gwadar to help turn it from a fishing port of 60,000-70,000 people into a transit point for Central Asian trade. The $248 million project, largely funded by China, has been touted as a showcase for foreign investors. -Reuters