QUETTA (Pakistan) - GUNMEN in Pakistan have attacked a fuel tanker destined for Nato forces in Afghanistan, in the latest attack targeting the coalition's supply lines, police said on Wednesday.

The attackers struck late on Tuesday on a road in southwestern Baluchistan province, shooting and wounding the driver, police said.

It was the latest in a series of increasingly sophisticated raids on Nato vehicles, although the militants have mainly targeted terminals outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, where the Taleban is active.

'At least three armed men intercepted a tanker carrying fuel to Kandahar in Afghanistan on Tuesday evening, shot the driver in his leg and spilled some 60,000 litres,' local police official Mohammad Irshad told AFP.

Police said it was not yet known who was behind the attack. The province is in the grip of a local insurgency launched by ethnic Baluch rebels who want more political rights, but does not have a history of Taleban attacks.

The Nato and US-led forces in Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for their supplies and equipment, around 80 per cent of which are transported through the neighbouring country.

However, both forces downplayed the recent attacks, saying they have had no impact and insisting supply lines are secure. -- AFP