Taliban militants have staged a suicide car bombing and a gunfight with Afghan security forces outside the American consulate in the western city of Herat.

A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed four Nato troops today, as bombings and clashes elsewhere in the country killed 14 other people, officials said.

A roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the mayor of a key city in southern Afghanistan, killing a passer-by, while the US coalition and Afghan special forces killed five militants in the same region.