KAMPALA: The death toll from twin blasts that hit the Ugandan capital as football fans gathered to watch the World Cup final has risen to 74, officials say.

Another 70 were injured in the explosions at a Kampala rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant.

The blasts went off as crowds of football fans were watching the World Cup finals in an Ethiopian restaurant on the southern outskirts of Kampala and a rugby club in the east of the city.

An American national was among the dead, a US embassy official here said.

Police chief Kale Kayihura said the explosions could be linked to recent threats by Somalia`s Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab militia to countries that have sent troops to the African Union peace force there.

Uganda and Burundi are the only African countries to have deployed forces to the war-wracked Horn of African country.

BDST: 1404 HRS, July 12, 2010