MOGADISHU, Somalia The president of Somalia narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a suicide car bomber outside the Parliament building in Baidoa on Monday, officials said.

The blast and a subsequent gun battle killed 11 people, including the brother of President Abdullahi Yusuf.

"This is the first suicide bomber in Somalia," the foreign minister, Ismail Mohamed Hurre, said in Nairobi.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Baidoa, the only town controlled by the government.

But it will aggravate tensions between the weak administration and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia, the Council of Islamic Somali Courts.

Islamic leaders denied having anything to do with the attack. Hurre said he could not rule out involvement by the council, accused of having ties to Al Qaeda.