KABUL, Jan 17 The Taliban said on Sunday they had kidnapped two Chinese engineers in Afghanistan, as President Hamid Karzai's office said he was set to announce a new plan for forging peace with the Taliban.

The kidnapping, the latest in a series by the militia or criminals, came as the Nato military force announced that a US soldier had died in eastern Afghanistan after being wounded while fighting Taliban-led insurgents.

The engineers, who had been helping to build a road, were seized on Saturday in the northern province of Faryab with four Afghans, said a local government spokesman who could not identify the kidnappers.

“Unknown people kidnapped yesterday two Chinese engineers along with their two local drivers and two guards in Qaysar district,” said Jawaed Bidar.

The abduction was claimed by the Taliban.

“Our Mujahideen have taken two Chinese engineers, their two drivers and their two guards,” spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said. A Taliban's Islamic court would decide on their fate, he said.

Several dozen foreigners, including engineers and journalists, have been kidnapped in Afghanistan since a 2001 US-led occupation that toppled the Taliban government.

Some kidnappings are claimed by the insurgents and some by criminal gangs.

The Taliban have denied holding two French journalists snatched with three Afghan assistants on December 30.—AFP