Pakistani police investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto say two suspects in custody have confessed to helping the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.

Pakistani people gather at the site of the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, 03 Jan 2008

Senior police official Chaudhry Abdul Majeed told reporters that two Islamic militants were at the scene of the attack in Rawalpindi and had provided shelter to the bomber -- identified only as "Bilal."

Majeed said the two suspects -- arrested last week - gave the bomber a suicide jacket and a pistol.

Police say one of the suspects said he wanted to avenge the killing of his close friend during a military raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque last year.

Ms. Bhutto was killed on December 27 in a gun and bomb attack as she left an election rally.

Both Pakistan and the United States have accused al-Qaida linked militant Baitullah Mehsud of masterminding Ms. Bhutto's assassination.

An investigation by Britain's Scotland Yard police said the force of a suicide blast killed Ms. Bhutto, not gunfire. The report concluded that a lone attacker fired shots at Ms. Bhutto before detonating explosives.

Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party rejected the British report, insisting that she was killed by gunfire. They have called for a United Nations inquiry into her death.