In a statement published on its website, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said that a 29-year-old rebel had carried out the March 9 bombing in Van "on his own initiative and decision" and had "accidentally" set off the explosives "before reaching his target."

The suicide bomber left a letter behind in which he said his action was in protest of the solitary confinement of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on a prison island in Turkey and what he called "state terror" against the Kurdish community, the statement said.

The rebel group underlined that it had nothing to do with the suicide bombing and that it does not carry out attacks which target civilians.

"We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and apologise to the people of Van," the statement read.

The explosion in central Van wrecked a municipal police vehicle parked near the governor's office, killing a city worker, a passerby and the suicide bomber. Nineteen people were injured in the blast.

Local security sources said initial suspicions fell on the PKK, which has waged a bloody separatist campaign in the country's eastern and southeastern regions since 1984.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has in the past conducted countrywide bomb attacks, including suicide bombings.

Violence in Turkey's southeast has escalated since June 2004, when the rebels called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire and ended a period of relative calm in the region.