QALAT, (Afghanistan) Sept 7: Hundreds of tribal leaders, government and clerics and former Mujahideen gathered here on Sunday in this restive southern province to discuss ways to improve security after a pitched battle between coalition troops and Taliban elements.

The meeting came on the same day that US Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was due to visit Kabul for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other top officials.

Also in the Zabul province, more than 300 people gathered at the shura, or council, which was aimed at improving relations between authorities and a local population that traditionally supports the Taliban insurgents.

“We met here to improve security,” Zabul Gov. Hafizullah Hashami said in his opening speech in Qalat. Haji Assadullah, the governor of neighbouring Ghazni province, was also present, as were several prominent tribal leaders.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan troops were sent to the nearby town of Naubaghar, some 75 kilometres east of Qalat, to join another offensive against Taliban insurgents, said Ahmad Zia Masoud, a spokesman for Assadullah.

Dozens of US troops in armoured personnel carriers were also deployed in the area, he said.

Fresh fighting was also reported in eastern Afghanistan, where suspected Taliban insurgents attacked a police station. There were no casualties during the two-hour firefight late Saturday and early Sunday in Ziruk, in eastern Paktika province, said Sayed Khan, a police spokesman in the province.

In a related development, suspected insurgents fired a rocket at the home of an intelligence official in the southern Helmand province, seriously injuring him and his driver, a senior official said on Sunday.

The attack happened late Saturday in Lashkargah, Helmand’s capital, about 160 kilometers southwest of Kandahar, said Dad Mohammed Khan, Helmand’s intelligence chief.—AFP