BBC - Nato-led forces in Afghanistan say they have killed 40 more Taleban in an ongoing offensive in the south.

The latest clashes occurred in Kandahar province, bringing to about 300 the number of insurgents killed since the operation began a week ago, Nato says.

The fighting came as member countries met in Poland to consider calls to boost deployments in Afghanistan.

Generals are expected to seek up to 2,000 more troops, as Nato forces face mounting casualties in the south.

BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says this is far more than Nato officials were suggesting only a few days ago - and an indication of how much tougher the fight with the Taleban has become.

Several Nato soldiers, most of them British or Canadian, have been killed in recent weeks.

Officials from Turkey, Germany and Italy have expressed reluctance to move their troops from reconstruction work in safer parts of Afghanistan to the troubled south, our correspondent adds.

The aim of the Medusa offensive - which began on 2 September - is to drive the insurgents from their strongholds in Kandahar province.

It is the biggest operation in the area since the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) took over the area from a US-led coalition at the end of July.

In the latest fighting in the Panjwayi district, Isaf says more than 40 Taleban were killed by air strikes and artillery barrages.

Reporters have been unable to visit the scene to verify casualty figures.

A Nato spokesman said a bomb-making factory had been found in the area, and that alliance forces had re-opened the main highway out of Kandahar city to civilian traffic.

Security boost

The clashes came after a suicide bomber rammed his car into a US Humvee vehicle in the capital, Kabul, on Friday - killing at least 16 people including two US soldiers.

About 30 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred near the US embassy.

A man claiming to be a spokesman for the Taleban told an Afghan news agency that the rebel group was behind the attack.

There has been a series of suicide bombings across Afghanistan, but such a large explosion in the centre of Kabul was unusual.

Security in the capital has been boosted on Saturday, as Afghans prepared to mark the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood - the resistance leader under the Taleban regime.

He died in a suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan two days before the attacks on the US in September 2001.

Friday's car bomb attack took place near Masood Square - named after him.

Afghan army soldiers have set up checkpoints on roads leading into Kabul and have been searching cars.

The Taleban ruled Afghanistan until late 2001 when they were toppled by US-led forces in the wake of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

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