RAWALPINDI: A suicide bomber killed 35 people outside a bank near Pakistan's capital yesterday, as the UN said spreading violence has forced it to start pulling out some expatriate staff and suspend long-term development work in areas along the Afghan border.

The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, met with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani yesterday at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. The US Embassy declined to say if he was there at the time of the attack.

Islamist insurgents have carried out numerous attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing more than 300 people in retaliation for an army offensive in the Pakistani Taliban's northwest stronghold of South Waziristan. Several UN personnel have been among those killed, and the group's decision to suspend development work could imperil Western goals of reducing extremism by improving Pakistan's economy.