NATO seeks ways to cut Afghan civilian toll

KABUL, May 3 (Reuters) NATO forces in Afghanistan vowed today to improve coordination with Afghan authorities to avoid civilian casualties, after a warning from President Hamid Karzai that his people were losing patience over the bloodshed.

The push to ease the toll on civilians came as a British soldier was killed in fighting in the south of the country and a roadside bomb blasted an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding 29. A Danish soldier died of his wounds suffered on Sunday.

Nearly 60 civilians have been killed in raids by US-led coalition troops in the past week, Afghan officials say, sparking four days of anti-American, anti-Karzai protests.

''There's absolutely room for additional coordination,'' Lieutenant Colonel Maria Carl, a spokeswoman for the NATO-led ISAF security force, told reporters asking about civilian deaths and Afghan concerns they were not involved in planning Western military operations.

''We are seeking new ways, all of us in country -- the government, the coalition, ISAF -- to improve these processes.'' While Afghan protests over civilian casualties have been mainly small, government officials, NATO and analysts all warn that a steady stream of civilian deaths will inevitably erode support for Karzai and the war against the Taliban, who were driven from power in 2001.

Protesters called this week for the removal of Karzai for failing to stop the civilian killings, which have come amid an upsurge in violence as the Western-backed government and the Taliban seek a decisive advantage in the battle for the country.

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES Karzai again called for increased military co-ordination yesterday at a meeting with the U.S. ambassador and United Nations, NATO and EU representatives, and warned of serious consequences for all if civilian deaths were not curbed.

Most of the recent civilian deaths were reported in the western province of Herat, an area not known as a Taliban stronghold, prompting many Afghans to reject initial reports from US-led coalition forces that the dead were 136 Taliban.

NATO officials said inquiries were under way into the deaths in Herat, where Afghan officials say 51 civilians were killed.

In southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, a British soldier serving with NATO-led troops was killed when a checkpoint he was manning came under Taliban fire, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

British troops have launched a large-scale operation against militants in the region.

And Denmark's military said it had suffered its first combat death in Afghanistan after a soldier shot in Helmand on Sunday died of his wounds in hospital.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since US-led troops ousted the Taliban government for sheltering al Qaeda leaders. A failure to curb rampant corruption and rebuild the country after decades of war has also weighed on the government.

In Kabul, Taliban militants claimed responsibility for a remote-controlled bomb that blasted into the side of an Afghan army bus today, killing the driver and wounding 29 soldiers and civilians.

Kabul has been relatively safe compared to the troubled south and east but there have been around 10 attacks on Afghan and foreign forces in the city this year.

Late yesterday, Senator Ustad Farid, a member of the upper house of parliament and briefly prime minister in the 1990s, was gunned down in his car outside his house in a killing police blamed on a feud.

Reuters RS DB2340