London  - Northern Ireland's First Minister on Sunday put off a planned trip to the United States after the first lethal terrorist attack in the province in 12 years left two soldiers dead and four injured.

The two soldiers were shot dead outside army barracks in County Antrim north of Belfast on Saturday night, with another four seriously injured.

No group had initially claimed the attack but it is being blamed on dissident republicans.

The attack is the first lethal terror attack against the British military in Northern Ireland since the signing of the peace agreement in 1998.

The governments in Northern Ireland, London and Dublin have all sharply condemned the shooting.

The attack is thought to have been carried out by gunmen using machine guns from a pizza delivery vehicle to ambush the troops. The injured are under military guard in hospital.

One of the injured is said to be in a critical state.

Robinson, who became first minister under the province's power- sharing government, called the attack "a terrible reminder of the past." He also cancelled his planned official trip to the US.

More than 3,000 people were killed in the conflict between nationalist Catholics and loyalist Protestants in Northern Ireland since the 1960s, until the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.

The last British soldier to die in the conflict was killed in 1997.

However, the police chief of Northern Ireland, Sir Hugh Orde, had warned recently that there was a renewed threat to peace from dissident republicans. dpa