(Recasts with minister, adds Pakistan, Bangladesh reaction)

By Palash Kumar

HYDERABAD, India, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The bombings in a south Indian city that left at least 40 people dead could have been the work of Islamist militants based in Pakistan or Bangladesh, the state's chief minister said on Sunday.

Andhra Pradesh's top politician Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy gave no further details, and both Islamabad and Dhaka rejected the idea, saying Reddy was jumping to conclusions without evidence.

About 80 people were wounded on Saturday night in Hyderabad, after bombs packed with metal pellets exploded within minutes of each other -- one at a food centre and one at an amusement park.

Asked if militants from Bangladesh or Pakistan were involved, Reddy told a news conference: "As things stand today the available information points to that."

One official said many more unexploded bombs had been discovered, but accounts differed.

A senior state intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 19 bombs had been found across the city -- at or near cinemas, bus stops and near pedestrian bridges.

Two national television news channels said there were seven unexploded bombs but Reddy and some other officials mentioned just one such device, which police had defused.

Indian intelligence officials have been saying in recent months that Islamist militants had turned their attention to the southern region, with its booming cities like Hyderabad -- an IT hub with a history of Hindu-Muslim tensions.

TENSIONS

In May, 11 Muslim worshippers were killed and five shot in subsequent clashes with police after a mosque bombing in Hyderabad.

Reddy said those responsible for Saturday's blasts could have been behind the mosque bombing as well.

India has suffered several large-scale bomb attacks in its big cities over the past two years, including in Mumbai and New Delhi. Hundreds have been killed.

Indian officials have blamed Pakistan or Bangladesh-based militant groups for several attacks, saying Islamabad and Dhaka were not doing enough to crack down on anti-Indian groups.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are involved in a cautious peace process, and Islamabad reacted coldly to Reddy's comments.

"Only Indians have this kind of power that as soon as a blast takes place, they can determine who has done it and they are not even deterred by their past record where they could not prove a single case that any Pakistani involvement was there," Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told Reuters.

Dhaka's reaction was more blunt.

"We condemn the Hyderabad bomb attacks. We regret and condole many innocent deaths," Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, government adviser in charge of the foreign ministry, told reporters.

"But we reject the groundless statement of the chief minister of Andhra (Pradesh) state."

Reddy said 40 people had died, including three children. The state home minister and some police put the toll at 43.

At a private hospital where several of the wounded were admitted, anxious relatives looked weary after spending the night sitting in plastic chairs in the waiting hall.

"I had gone shopping with my mother and we had stopped to eat," said Pawan Aggarwal from a hospital bed.

"We were somewhat lucky -- we saw so many people dead. There was blood everywhere." (Additional reporting by Rina Chandran in Hyderabad, Kamran Haider in Islamabad and Masud Karim in Dhaka)

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