Iran acknowledged on Tuesday giving "assistance" to Afghanistan after President Hamid Karzai admitted receiving bags of cash from Tehran, sparking US concerns about its arch-foe's expanding influence.

The number of foreign troops to die in 2010 in Afghanistan has reached 600, by far the highest annual toll in nine years of war despite tentative reconciliation efforts with the Taliban.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai admitted on Monday that his chief of staff had received "bags of money" from Iran but insisted the payment was transparent and a form of aid from a friendly country.

A UN office in Afghanistan's Herat city was hit by three blasts on Saturday when a group of militants stormed the premises, a media report said.

A military offensive in southern Afghanistan is chasing the Taliban out of their stronghold in Kandahar province, the Afghan President's half brother said.

A former Afghan President who heads a new peace council said on Thursday he’s convinced the Taliban are ready to negotiate peace after nine years of war in Afghanistan.

The governor of Afghanistan's Kunduz province and 14 other people were killed on Friday in a blast in northern part of the country, a media report said.

Twenty Taliban militants, including two rebel commanders, were killed in fighting with security forces in Afghanistan, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

Evidence is emerging that last weekend’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan was affected by widespread fraud, so much so, that it could affect the results in a third of the country’s provinces.

Nine members of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed when their helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday.