Two soldiers have been killed and several others wounded after a suicide bomber attacked an army vehicle in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the military has said.

The attack took place on Friday near the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani-administered part of the disputed Himalayan region.

"The bomber blew himself up near a military vehicle," a military spokesman said. "Two of our soldiers embraced martyrdom."

It was the first suicide attack in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, according to Choudry Imtiaz, a senior administrative official.

The use of the tactic has raised fears that Taliban fighters from the northwest of the country are spreading their campaign against the government further afield.

The military has widened an offensive against fighters opposed to the government  from the North West Frontier Province to neighbouring South Waziristan in recent days, targeting bases reportedly used by Baitullah Mehsud, elader of the PAkistani Taliban.

"It may be a sign of desperation at a time when they are coming under tremendous pressure because of the offensive," Talat Masood, a retired Paksitani general, said.

"It also shows they want to widen the conflict and hit the army wherever it is."

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since they gained independence from British rule in 1947 over Kashmir.

Separatist fighters have carried out attacks against Indian security forces on the other side of the Line of Control that divides the two parts of of the region for more than two decades, but the Paksitani-controlled area has been largely peaceful.

India and Pakistan both claim the whole of predominantly Muslim Jammu and Kashmir.

About 10 million live in the Indian-administered side and three million in the Pakistan-administered side.

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