A senior Taliban commander and two other insurgents were killed in a firefight with Nato-Afghan forces in western Afghanistan, the military alliance said today.

A battle in a militant-controlled region of western Afghanistan killed 30 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers, while a roadside bomb in the country’s north wounded an Afghan governor, officials said today.

Taliban chiefs would consider holding negotiations with the Afghan government, but no direct offer has been made by President Hamid Karzai's administration, a spokesman for the militant group said today.

Afghanistan’s foreign minister today urged the international community to do more to stem the flow of Islamic extremists, weapons and terror funding into the country.