A bomb ripped through a crowd waiting for the Algerian president to arrive in an eastern town on Thursday, killing as many as 16 people and injuring more than 70, officials said. The bomb exploded about 45 minutes before President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's scheduled arrival in Batna, a town about 280 miles east of the capital, Algiers - and the last stop on the president's tour of eastern Algeria. Local police said a man between 30 and 35 years old carrying the bomb in a bag walked into the crowd at the Al-Atik mosque. He was behaving strangely and onlookers alerted police, the officials said.

As police moved in toward the man, he threw down the bag and tried to flee. The bomb exploded, and it was not immediately clear whether he died or was wounded in the attack, police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Hospital and security officials put the death toll at 16, but the official APS news agency reported 14 dead. The discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled.

Bouteflika, who arrived after the blast, made brief remarks to Algerian television, saying "the only solution was national consensus."

Coordinated terror attacks killed dozens of people on April 11, when bombs ripped through the Algerian prime minister's office and a police station in an Algiers suburb.

A new al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for the April bombings, saying they were carried out by suicide bombers in trucks packed with explosives.

The attacks were a devastating setback for the North African nation's efforts to close that violent chapter in its history - an Islamic insurgency that has killed an estimated 200,000 people.

Bouteflika has devoted his presidency to ending the violence, launching a national reconciliation plan offering amnesty to insurgents who lay down their arms and stepping up military sweeps of remaining insurgent strongholds.

"This reconciliation, which does not exclude anyone," is part of "an effort for the reconstruction of Algeria, because without political stability there will be no economic and social development," Bouteflika said.

Bouteflika often tours the country to check on the progress of development programs and other initiatives. He visited several western regions about a month ago and began his tour of the east on Tuesday, visiting four regions over three days.

The bombing comes just days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Analysts and security officials have been warning al-Qaida could be plotting attacks around this period.

German authorities arrested three Islamic militants suspected of plotting massive bomb attacks Tuesday.

The same day eight men - of Pakistani, Afghan, Somali and Turkish origin - were arrested in Denmark. Authorities said the men were linked to senior al-Qaida leaders, but have not revealed what their targets were, or when they planned to strike.

Written By AOMAR OUALI