Security officials said the bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into the gate of the camp near Buynaksk.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said the casualties were all military.

Shootings and bombings have become frequent in Dagestan, which is battling an increasingly assertive Islamist insurgency.

Earlier, Dagestan's minister for national, religious and foreign affairs, Bekmurza Bekmurzayev, was wounded in a car bombing in the region's capital, Makhachkala, along with two bodyguards. His driver was killed.

Dagestan is in the North Caucasus, which has long suffered Islamist and separatist violence. Violence has recently spread from Chechnya to neighbouring republics.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that ending acute poverty in the region is vital for restoring stability.