Suspected Taliban guerillas attacked an Afghan military post in southern Helmand province, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, an Afghan official said on Sunday.

Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the Helmand governor, said the suspected Taliban fighters had attacked the post on Saturday night in the Bolan district about seven km (four miles) west of provincial capital, Lashgargah.

The condition of one of the wounded men was said to be serious, the spokesman said.

"We don't how many Taliban were involved in the attack," Wali told Reuters. "But we had five soldiers at the post and all of them had been hit," he added.

Taliban remnants have stepped up attacks in recent months in southern Afghanistan, the stronghold of the radical Islamic regime ousted from power in late 2001 by US-led forces.

More than 300 people, including aid workers, US soldiers and many Taliban soldiers, have been killed in the violence across Afghanistan since August.

On Sunday the United Nations condemned an attack near southern Kandahar city on Saturday in which a driver from an Afghan demining agency was wounded when assailants opened fire on his vehicle. It said worsening security was frustrating aid work.

The United Nations and the US-backed Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai have called repeatedly for an expansion of NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force from Kabul to restive provinces. The issue is currently under debate in Brussels.

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