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 No one has claimed responsibility, but the explosion came just weeks after the terrorist group threatened Denmark over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad reprinted earlier this year in newspapers in that country.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service, known as PET, said in a statement late Monday that the embassy was probably the target.
"It is PET's assessment that al-Qaida or an al-Qaida-related group likely is behind the attack," agency director Jakob Scharf said. He added that "a series of other militant Islamic groups and networks in Pakistan also could have the intention and the capacity to hit Danish targets in Pakistan."
The explosion wounded at least 35 people, left a deep crater on the road outside the embassy, severely damaged the nearby office of a development group and devastated trees and cars. The embassy building remained standing, though its windows were shattered.
A team of federal investigators sifted through the rubble. Barricades blocked access to the area, home to several diplomatic buildings and residences.
"We are just trying to find any clue, any evidence," federal investigator Muhammad Mustafa said. "You know yesterday it was panic here. Usually we miss important things in panic."
Officials were trying to determine if the bomb was a suicide attack and looked at security footage. Senior police officer Ahmed Latif said the attacker apparently used a fake diplomatic license plate to get the car near the embassy.
The six dead include two Pakistani policemen, a cleaner and a handyman employed by the embassy. One was Pakistani-born with a Danish passport, the Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen said.
Denmark has faced threats at its embassies following the reprinting in February by about a dozen newspapers of a cartoon that depicted Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. That and other images in a Danish paper sparked riots in the Muslim world in 2006.
A message on the embassy's telephone answering system said it was closed Tuesday. On the embassy's Web site, Danes were advised against traveling to Pakistan and those already in the country were told to "exercise particular vigilance."
Denmark's Politiken newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday: "We knew it could happen but suddenly the threat became reality."
The Berlingske Tidende daily lashed out in a comment titled "Pakistan's poor security."
"We have simply trusted the Pakistanis' ability to protect us too much," it said.
The explosion could heighten pressure on Pakistan to stop striking peace deals with militants in the border regions, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to have found sanctuary.
Pakistan insists it is not talking to "terrorists" but rather militants willing to lay down their weapons. But the U.S. has warned the deals could simply give militants time to rebuild strength.
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 Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a statement Monday the blast would "redouble our resolve" to "continue on our avowed path to fight terrorism and extremism." Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the attack would not affect the peace talks.
Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors al-Qaida messages, said the bombing was likely the work of the terror group or an affiliate.
He said al-Qaida called for attacks against Danish diplomatic facilities and personnel in a video last August, and repeated its threat in April.
"I urge and incite every Muslim who can harm Denmark to do so in support of the Prophet, God's peace and prayers be upon him, and in defense of his honorable stature," IntelCenter quoted al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri as saying in an April 21 video.
But analysts said it was possible groups other than al-Qaida who also were angry about the cartoons could be behind the blast. Islam generally forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal regions, said al-Qaida attacks tend to be more lethal. Radical local clerics could have inspired it, although if it was a suicide bombing, it likely originated from the unruly border regions, he said.
Even if the attack isn't linked to the tribal regions, the U.S. and the West "will use this ... to say look, your policy (on peace deals) is not working," analyst Talat Masood said.
Monday's attack follows a bombing in March at a restaurant in Islamabad that killed a Turkish aid worker and wounded at least 12 others, including at least four FBI personnel.
The U.S. advised Americans to be cautious in moving through the usually tranquil capital, but there was no immediate indication that it or any other foreign governments or aid agencies would evacuate their personnel after the new attack.
[Associated
Press; By ASIF SHAHZAD]
Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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