Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of rubbish at a US military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention centre because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions, a western military official said today.

More than 2,000 angry Afghans have gathered outside a US airbase to protest against the inadvertent burning of Korans and other Islamic religious materials.

About 300 families have already fled a southern Afghan town ahead of a major new offensive planned on a key Taliban stronghold, provincial officials said today.