KANDAHAR (Afghanistan) - AT LEAST nine Taleban-linked militants were killed in clashes with Afghan and international forces in troubled southern Afghanistan, a police commander said on Tuesday.

The fighting erupted in the Nawa district of Helmand province after dozens of rebels attacked Afghan security forces manning a checkpoint, provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad told AFP.

Afghan reinforcements backed by Nato-led troops rushed to the scene and killed nine rebel attackers, Mr Sherzad said.

'Nine Taleban were killed and their bodies were left in the area. We had no casualties,' he added.

Helmand province, which borders Pakistan, sees much of the violence in the bloody insurgency being waged by remnants of the Taleban regime, which was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Dutch Major General Mart de Kruif, commander of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan which includes Helmand, called this week for most of the 30,000 extra US troops due next year to be sent to Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world's opium, much of it in Helmand.

There are about 70,000 international troops based in Afghanistan to help Kabul defeat an insurgency and rebuild the country after decades of war. -- AFP