The incident occurred late Monday on a road near the town of Silvan, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Diyarbakir, the central city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

The two soldiers were inside a vehicle transporting garbage to a nearby dump when the mine was activated by suspected militants from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the officials said, asking not to be named.

Landmine attacks have become a hallmark of PKK violence since the group called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004.

The attack was the latest episode in almost daily bloodshed in the region over the past few weeks that has seen deadly Kurdish riots in urban areas and increasing clashes between the army and the PKK in the countryside.

The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984, when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for self-rule in the southeast.