HIGHLIGHTS: 4 Suspects & One Police Officer Killed in Clash Southwest of Peshawar||Evidence Suggests Qaeda Financed Attack on U.S. Consulate in Karachi|| Pakistan's Pro-Taliban Newspaper "Ummat" Publishes Photos of wanted persons, Calling Them 'Warriors of Islam.'|| (Read photo caption)|| STORY: Pakistani police have shot dead four al-Qaeda suspects near the Afghan border, the authorities say.

The militants used a coach to smash their way through a roadblock near the town of Kohat, about 75 kilometers south-west of Peshawar, lobbing grenades out of the windows, police say.

Officers opened fire, killing all those on board, including the driver. An explosion then killed an officer trying to move a suspect's body.

The clash came as Pakistan's Government said it had evidence that al-Qaeda was behind recent deadly bombings and the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl in the southern city of Karachi.

Wednesday's incident comes just over a week after 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a gunfight with al-Qaeda suspects in a tribal area near Kohat, which borders Afghanistan.

Local officials said they believed the men killed on Wednesday were part of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, and had been travelling from the tribal areas close to the Afghan border.

They said they were of Arab appearance, but their nationality was unknown.

STEPPING UP SEARCH FOR QAEDA INFILTERATORS

A government official in Islamabad said it had yet to be confirmed who the men were, or where they were from.

"We're conducting an inquiry and it takes time to establish the real identities of the dead," the official said.

Thousands of Pakistani troops and police have stepped up their search for al-Qaeda fighters since last week's shoot-out.

Two militants from Chechnya were killed in the encounter and a third captured, but more than 30 got away.

The army sent reinforcements to the area to try to find those who escaped, but it is not known if those killed in this latest incident were part of that group.

For the past seven months the Pakistani army has been trying to seal the border with Afghanistan and stop al-Qaeda and Taleban supporters from fleeing into the tribal areas where it is thought they have some support.

BOMBING LEADS

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said the tribal leaders were co-operating with the government and knew the consequences of sheltering terrorists.

He added that Pakistan knew al-Qaeda was behind the 14 June blast outside the US consulate in Karachi, in which 12 Pakistanis died.

"We have credible information that al-Qaeda financed it," Mr. Haider told reporters on Wednesday.

A car bomb a month earlier, on 8 May, killed 14 people near Karachi's Sheraton Hotel, 11 of them French.

"We know these elements killed [US journalist] Daniel Pearl and the French nationals," Mr. Haider said.

He offered no further details.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistan's pro-Taliban newspaper "Ummat" published photos of wanted persons, Tuesday, July 2, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan, calling them "These are not dangerous terrorists but warriors of Islam", and appealed to people to pray for them. A similarly-designed advertisement was published last Sunday in a local daily by the Pakistan Government, calling them wanted dangerous terrorists and made a public appeal for help in finding Osama bin Laden, his top aide and 16 other al-Qaida members. Their names are from top left to bottom right, are Osama bin Laden, Aiman al Zawari, Abdul Rehman Yasin, Ibrahim Saleh Mohammad al Yaqub, Sheikh Ahmed Salam Sawadan, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Saiful Adil, Abdul Karim Al Nasir, Emad Fayyez, Ahmed Ibrahim, Fahid Mohammad Ali Mussalm, Fazal Abdullah Mohammad, Khalid Shiekh Mohammad, Ali Saeed bin Ali Alhoori, Ahmed Khulfan, Mustafa Mohammad Fazil, Hasan Azuddin, Ali Khatwa. (AP Photo/Daily Ummat)