The blasts tore through three packed tourist restaurants on the Indonesian resort island Saturday evening, creating all-too-familiar scenes of bloody chaos just days before the third anniversary of the nightclub attacks there.

Officials said tourists from Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea were among the dead and the scores of injured.

Messages of condemnation and support flooded in from across the world, including Britain, the United States, France, Japan and Australia, which insisted it was not the target of the attacks, unlike in the 2002 blasts.

"I think we should see this as primarily an attempt to wreak havoc and cause fear and create instability inside Indonesia," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was dismayed that the island -- a popular destination for Western holidaymakers -- had once again become a target of indiscriminate violence.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also denounced the "appalling attacks".

"We stand by Indonesia at this very difficult time," said Blair, who was writing a personal note to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

US Secretary of State Condole-ezza Rice echoed Blair's words.

"The United States condemns the terrorist bombings today in Bali that claimed innocent lives and injured many more," she said in a statement.

Japan also pledged to continue "its utmost efforts to tackle terrorism in cooperation with the international community, and to cooperate with and support the government of Indonesia in such efforts," the foreign ministry said.

The Singaporean government said the attacks underlined the need for stronger regional cooperation against terrorism in Asia.

French President Jacques Chirac said in a letter to Yudhoyono that news of the near-simulta-neous bombings "stunned and saddened me".

Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also denounced "in the strongest possible terms the despicable attacks in Bali".