At least 43 killed in Pakistan bomb blasts

 Bomb blasts have torn through two of Pakistan's main cities overnight, killing at least 43 people and wounding more than 100 as the nation struggles to quell a worsening Taliban insurgency.

Two blasts devastated a busy market and engulfed it in flames killing at least 33 people in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, while in the north-west provincial capital of Peshawar a suicide bomber killed 10 people.

Attacks blamed on Islamist militants have surged this year as Pakistan presses military offensives against the Taliban across the north-west, under fierce US pressure to do more to destroy the extremists' strongholds.

The popular Moon Market in the centre of eastern Lahore city was transformed into a scene of flames and rubble as night fell on Monday, when two bombs exploded 30 seconds apart outside a police station and a bank, officials said.

"We have recovered 33 dead bodies," said doctor Rizwan Naseer, director general of the city rescue service, putting the injured toll at 95.

Lahore police chief Muhammad Pervez Rathore put the death toll slightly lower as bodies were still being pulled from the rubble.