14 Dead in Pakistan Blast
He told a news conference in the capital Islamabad that 23 others were injured -- 12 French and 11 Pakistanis -- in an apparent suicide car bombing outside a hotel.
The French nationals were naval workers for a French state-owned company which has some 80 staff based in Karachi involved in jointly building with Pakistan three Agosta 90B class submarines.
Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac condemned on Wednesday the "Disgraceful" bomb attack that killed 10 French citizens outside a luxury hotel in Pakistan's volatile southern city of Karachi, Reuters reported.
"The president of the republic has learned with dismay of the attack which claimed several French victims in Karachi," the Presidential Palace said in a statement.
"He condemns without reservation this disgraceful act which nothing can justify," it added.
Chirac expressed his condolences for the families of the victims.
"The president of the republic calls on the Pakistani authorities to take the necessary security measures towards the French community and to do everything in their power to find and punish the authors of this terrorist act," it said.
In the meantime, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf telephoned his French counterpart Jacques Chirac Wednesday after 11 French nationals were killed in a terror bomb blast in Karachi, AFP quoted a government spokesman as saying.
"President Musharraf offered deep condolences over this tragic incident and promised to carry out a vigorous and full scale investigation to trace the culprits," he said.
In return, Chirac said France acknowledged the difficulties facing Pakistan after it joined the international coalition against terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, the spokesman said.
Chirac told Musharraf that Pakistan was playing a key role in the fight against terrorists and that France would be happy to assist Pakistani police in their investigation into the blast in any way it could.