The bomber exploded when he was stopped by policemen guarding the gate of the Judicial Complex on Khyber Road within Peshawar cantonment, considered a high-security area as the residence of the army Corps Commander, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly and offices of provincial ministers are located nearby.

Officials at the Lady Reading Hospital said they received 15 bodies while two other persons succumbed to their injuries later. Shahib Gul, the deputy medical superintendent of the hospital, told reporters that 45 people were also injured and five of them were in a critical condition. Three policemen were among the dead, said district administration chief Shahibzada Anees.

"The bomber was on foot and tried to enter the main gate of the Judicial Complex. When the security personnel stopped him and were searching him, he blew himself up," Anees told media at the site of the attack.

Police cordoned off the area and briefly blocked Khyber Road as ambulances ferried bodies and the injured to hospital. Witnesses said the bomber, a youth in his twenties with a slight beard, came to the area in a taxi.

Officials of the bomb disposal squad said eight to 10 kg of explosives were used in the attack. Two cars burst into flames after the blast. Several other cars, auto-rickshaws and motorcycles were also destroyed by the blast.

Footage on television showed documents and shoes lying scattered at the site of the blast. The complex was crowded at the time when the bomber struck. This was the fifth suicide attack in Peshawar this month. Hundreds of people have died in a series of suicide attacks and bombings in cities across Pakistan since the military launched an operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month.

Nearly 120 people were killed in a car bomb attack on a busy market in Peshawar late last month. North West Frontier Province Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said the government's campaign against militants would not be deterred by such attacks. "Let them (militants) target us, our children and even the Chief Minister's House. We will not give up and we will keep fighting them," he told reporters.

People have begun to hate the militants and they were trying to divert attention from themselves by blaming foreign elements like US private security contractor Blackwater for such attacks, he said.