Syria's prime minister survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus yesterday, as fighters struck in the heart of President Bashar Assad's capital.

Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

As prime minister, Wael Al-Halki,å wields little power but the attack highlighted the fighters' growing ability to target symbols of Assad's authority in a civil war.

Assad picked Halki in August to replace Riyadh Hijab, who defected and escaped to neighboring Jordan just weeks after a bombing killed four of the president's top security advisers.

The blast shook the Mezzeh district soon after 9 a.m., sending thick black smoke into the sky. The Observatory said one man accompanying Halki was killed as well as five passers-by.

State television showed firemen hosing down the charred and mangled remains of a car. Close by was a large white bus, its windows blown out and its seats gutted by fire. Glass and debris were scattered across several lanes of a main road.

TV broadcast footage of Halki chairing what it said was an economic committee.