In a statement published on the website of the Europe-based Firat News agency, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said it was not involved with the blast in the city of Van, which officials suspect was the work of a suicide bomber.

"Just as we have no information on the incident in Van, we do not organize attacks" that target civilians, the PKK said in a brief statement.

The explosion in central Van wrecked a municipal police vehicle parked near the governor's office, killing a city worker and a passer-by.

The third victim, whose body was badly mutilated, is believed to be that of the attacker.

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.

A radical Kurdish group officials say is an offshoot of the PKK has also claimed deadly bomb attacks on civilian targets in western Turkey.

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.