The sine-Gordon equation or the sinh-Gordon equation are related to the Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli (BLP) equation by certain transformation [Inv. Probl. 3 (1987) 37; Theor. Math. Phys. 100 (1994) 1075]. In this paper, we construct explicit exact solutions for the BLP equation by using a further extended tanh method [Phys. Lett. A. 307 (2003) 269); Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 17 (2003) 669] and symbolic computation system Maple. We obtain abundant soliton like, multi-soliton like and period form solutions of the equation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.