CASABLANCA, Morocco -- At least 41 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a string of bomb blasts that rocked Morocco's largest city Casablanca, leaving a trail of bloody carnage as the world was on alert for terror attacks.

Belgium's Consulate, a Jewish center and cemetery, an international hotel and a bustling Spanish restaurant were hit by almost simultaneous explosions as residents were enjoying a Friday night out, AFP reported.

The attacks follow a triple suicide bombing on Monday in Saudi Arabia blamed on Al-Qaeda that killed 34 people, amid a host of terror alerts for the Middle East, East Africa and Southeast Asia.

"These attacks bear the hallmarks of international terrorism," Interior Minister Mostafa Sahel said.

It is the first time the North African kingdom, a strong U.S. ally that neverthless opposed the war on Iraq, has been hit by such a devastating attack.

The explosions caused chaos and panic in the city center, with buildings bombed out, cars wrecked and glass and debris strewn across the streets.

"It's a bloodbath," said 40-year-old Hamid, at the scene of the bombing at a Spanish restaurant where about 20 people were believed to have been killed.

Top Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz blamed the blasts on "terrorists" seeking to block progress in the Arab world, while Russia said they bore the "signature" of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Officials said the victims were mainly Moroccans, although a Spanish diplomatic source said a Spanish national was believed to be among the dead. The official MAP news agency said those killed also included a hotel doorman and two police officers who were posted at the Belgian Consulate.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, although Sahel said there were similarities linking the Casablanca explosions with Monday's suicide attacks in the Saudi capital.

Sahel said three Moroccan suspects had been arrested, including one would-be suicide bomber injured in the blasts.

The deadliest of the blasts was at the Casa de Espana, a Spanish cultural center and restaurant where a crowd of people were having dinner.

Around 20 people are believed to have been killed in either one or two bomb blasts at the restaurant, although little debris was visible from outside.

Officials said three of the bombs were planted in cars, which exploded outside the Belgian Consulate, at the Farah Hotel -- better known by its former name, the Safir -- and at a Jewish cultural center.

Witnesses of the attack on the Jewish center told AFP that the bodies of two suicide bombers were pulled out of the rubble.

They said the toll would have been much higher had the center not been hit on Friday night, after the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

In Brussels, a Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the bomb that went off near his country's consulate may not have been aimed at the mission.

He added that a U.S. diplomat lived in a house close to the blast site, and that an Italian restaurant nearby was apparently Jewish-owned.

A leader of Morocco's Islamic opposition Justice and Development Party Mustapha Ramid, condemned the bombings as "a savage terrorist crime".

In February Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden cited Morocco among a list of "apostate" Arab nations in a cassette message distributed to the media.

That month, three Saudi nationals accused of being part of an Al-Qaeda cell were sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting attacks against Western targets in Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar last year.

Six Moroccan accomplices received jail terms of up to a year.

The United States, Australia and Britain -- which have stepped up their intelligence cooperation since the September 11, 2001 attacks -- released a wave of terrorism warnings to their citizens in recent days.

The U.S. State Department released terrorism alerts covering the Middle East, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and East Africa, while Britain also this week suspended all flights to and from Kenya because of an "imminent" terrorist threat.