DUBAI (AFP) - A Pakistani depressed over debts in Dubai drowned his two daughters and emailed his wife to wish her a better life before killing himself, reports in the emirate said on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old strangled and drowned the girls, aged two and seven, in the bathroom of the family's villa on Sunday night before drowning himself in the compound's swimming pool, the Emarat Al-Youm newspaper said.

The man had been suffering from depression due to mounting personal debts and was having problems with his wife who was attending a concert at the time of the deaths, the daily said.

The National newspaper said the man had sent his wife a message saying she deserved a better life than he could offer, and that he decided to kill the daughters because he could not leave them with no one to care for them.

The family's Ethiopian housemaid said she went to bed at 10:30pm, and the wife's brother was reportedly asleep in the villa.

Police found the elder daughter wearing a nightdress and lying in a flooded bathroom, while the second was wrapped in a blanket and placed in bed after suffering the same fate, The National said.

Police were still investigating the tragedy and a post-mortem examination was to be conducted on the three bodies in the near future, the newspaper added.