Islamabad, Dec 7 (DPA) A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a court building in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar Monday, killing nine people and injuring many more, officials said.

Islamist insurgents have launched a series of deadly attacks across the country in recent weeks to avenge military operations against them and their prime target remains Peshawar, next to the militancy-plagued tribal region near the Afghan border.

Liaquat Ali Khan, the city's police chief, told reporters that the bomber blew himself up when he was intercepted by guards at the gate of the building.

An official at the state-run Lady Reading Hospital confirmed nine deaths and said that 45 injured had been brought to the hospital. 'Half of them had minor injuries and therefore they were discharged immediately after treatment,' he added.

Two policemen and a lawyer were among those killed in the blast that shattered the window-panes of a hostel for members of the provincial assembly in North-West Frontier Province of which Peshawar is the capital.

The bomber carried around 7 kg of explosives in his vest that was also packed with ball bearings, bomb disposal expert Tanveer Ahmed told the Express News television channel.

Investigators found the severed head and limbs of the attacker at the site.

Two cars and a motor rickshaw, the vehicle apparently used by the bomber to reach the courts, were destroyed in the blast.

A similar strike at Peshawar's main court complex elsewhere in the city Nov 19 killed 19 people, including three policemen.

The terrorist assaults come as Pakistani security forces battle Taliban fighters in their stronghold of South Waziristan, a rugged region described as the centre of global terrorism that serves as an Al Qaeda sanctuary.

Pakistani officials say the attacks strengthen Islamabad's resolve to eliminate the Taliban and their foreign cohorts, mostly of Arab and Central Asian origin.