Pakistan's president and prime minister were due to dine at the luxury hotel destroyed in a weekend bombing but changed their minds at the last moment, it emerged today.

A soldier was killed in Afghanistan when an explosion struck a patrol of Nato-led troops, the alliance said in a statement.

Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, while a bomb attack near the capital killed three German nationals, officials said today.