Soldiers opened fire on the two militants, members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), when they spotted them planting explosives on a road in the mountainous province of Tunceli, the officials said.

The shoot-out also caused the explosives to go off, they said.

Landmine and bomb attacks on roads used by the army in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast have become a hallmark of PKK violence in the past several years.

A landmine explosion blamed on the rebels killed two soldiers in Tunceli on Saturday, while another claimed the life of a villager in a field in neighbouring Bingol on Friday.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the region since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.