HIGHLIGHTS: Karzai Blames Qaeda or Taliban for Attempt on His Life & Says Won't Take Additional Security Measures to Protect Himself||All Detained Suspects Afghans and From Kandahar||Taxi Driver Detained as Suspect in Kabul's Devastating Explosion Shortly Before Attempt on Karzai's Life in Kandahar||Twin Strikes Underline Fragility of the Karzai Regime||Karzai Wants International Peacekeeping Force Expanded Outside Kabul|| STORY: Investigators in Afghanistan questioned at least seven suspects Friday as they hunted for the masterminds of an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and of a car bomb that killed as many as 26 people

Karzai blamed Thursday's attacks, which heightened fears that a wave of violence might mark the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States, on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda movement or its Taliban allies.

But he said he had no plans to take additional personal security measures despite the attempt on his life in the southern city of Kandahar.

An official in Kandahar said six men had been arrested in connection with the attack on Karzai.

The six were armed when they were picked up outside the residence of Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai after two gunmen opened fire on Karzai's vehicle, the official said.

Earlier accounts of the incident spoke of a lone gunman.

TAXI DRIVER ARRESTED ARRESTED AS SUSPECT IN KABUL'S DEVASTATING EXPLOSION SHORTLY BEFORE ATTEMPT ON KARZAI'S LIFE IN KANDAHAR

In Kabul, Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said his officials had arrested the driver of a taxi that exploded in the heart of the capital shortly before the attack on Karzai.

"The suspect is an Afghan and the driver of the taxi. The investigation is going on. He has not said anything yet to indicate that he had any link with the explosions," Wardak said, adding the blast had killed 16 people and wounded more than 150.

Commander Simon Ryan, spokesman for the Turkish-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, told reporters the official death toll was 26. "ISAF has already raised its own security measures," he said, without elaborating.

The twin strikes left Karzai's transitional government looking more fragile than at any time since he took office last December after a U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban.

KARZAI WANTS INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING FORCE EXPANDED OUTSIDE KABUL

Karzai said recruitment in the provinces would have to be improved. He repeated his call for the expansion of the international peacekeeping force outside the capital Kabul.

Some 5,000 soldiers from 20 countries are in the capital, but contributing nations to the International Security Assistance Force appear reluctant to agree to Karzai's requests that they send troops to the provinces too.

Police said the explosion in the Kabul taxi was preceded by a smaller explosion from a bicycle, apparently intended to lure people into the streets to become victims of the second blast.

Vice-President Abdul Haji Qadir was gunned down in July by two unidentified assassins as he left his Kabul office.

In February, civil aviation and tourism minister Abdul Rahman was killed at Kabul airport. Karzai blamed members of the Northern Alliance, which toppled the Taliban with U.S. help.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference at the presidential palace in Kabul September 6, 2002. Karzai said he had no plans to take additional personal security measures despite an attempt on his life in the southern city of Kandahar. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuter