US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60 suspected Taliban militants today, the fourth day of a Nato-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, a Nato spokesman said.

Nato and Afghan forces used artillery and air strikes overnight to keep up pressure on an estimated 700 Taliban trapped by an offensive that the alliance claims has killed at least 200 militants in southern Afghanistan, Nato said today.

International donors pledged an additional €160m to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur today during a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to raise money to stop the ongoing violence in western Sudan.

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said today that the Nato mission to train Iraqi forces would involve alliance instructors working both inside and outside of the country.