A probable suicide bomb attack in a Cairo bazaar popular with tourists killed a U.S. man, a French woman and the bomber, Egypt’s tourist minister said today.

The blast was in the el-Hussein area of medieval Cairo, where tourists vital to flock to see ancient mosques and buy souvenirs. Nine people were still in hospital with wounds caused by the bomb, which was packed with nails.

Officials have said it was probably detonated by an Egyptian whose remains have yet to be identified. Three US citizens, four Egyptians and two French people are still in hospital.

The Foreign Office has warned Britons to be aware of the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks but stopped well short of advising tourists against travel. More than 587,000 Britons visited Egypt last year and the FCO pointed out that the country's security forces and police have made "considerable efforts" to ensure tourist safety in the Sinai and at other tourist sites.

The US embassy in Cairo also issued a statement urging American citizens to stay away from the area of the attack. It said there was no independent information to suggest the bomb was part of a wider campaign, but told Americans to“avoid areas of Cairo where large numbers of tourists congregate”.

There was no immediate indication of the motive for the attack, the latest in a series against tourists in Egypt, a close ally of the United States. A political analyst said recent attacks in Egypt appeared to be against foreigners rather than the tourism industry, which Islamist militants targeted in Egypt in the 1990s.

“What happened today was against foreigners and not against tourism. It’s very close to what happened in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait and in Qatar,” said Dia Rashwan, referring to other attacks in recent months attributed to Islamist militants. “The central event is the Iraqi occupation ... the side effects are what happened now in Cairo,” he said.

Million of tourists who visit Egypt every year to see Pharaonic sites and holiday at Red Sea resorts provide the country with an important source of foreign currency.

Officials often point out that Egypt is safer than many of its neighbours. An Egyptian man stabbed and wounded two Hungarian tourists in central Cairo last month in what police said was revenge for Western policies towards Iraqis and Palestinians.

Bombings in and around the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba killed 34 people last October. An attack in 1997 at a Pharaonic temple near the southern town of Luxor killed 58 tourists and was a severe and long-lasting blow to the industry. Tourists returned slowly and last year witnessed a record number of visitors to the country.

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