"A suicide bomber wrapped in a blanket came running into the training area (of the camp) where recruits had gathered at around 8 a.m. and exploded himself, killing 35 soldiers and injuring a few more," a Pakistan defense news release issued in Islamabad said.

The attack was in the town of Dargai, believed to be a stronghold of pro-Taliban militants, 65 miles north of Peshawar, the Press Trust of India reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the BBC said, but it happened about 30 miles from where the army said it killed some 80 suspected al-Qaida militants last week in airstrikes on a madrassa, or religious training school.

Almost 80,000 Pakistani troops are fanned out along the border with Afghanistan to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida militants who fled when the Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapsed in 2001.