KABUL (REUTERS) - An explosion at an apartment complex close to the US embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul wounded a policeman on Friday, breaking a rare period of calm in Afghanistan's capital.

"Explosives planted in a bicycle went off," Kabul's deputy police chief Salem Almas said.

The bicycle bomb wounded a police guard outside the Macroyan apartment complex, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

The guard was stationed at the complex because a member of the country's Election Complaints Commission lives there, though it was unclear if the commissioner was the intended target, he said.

Suicide bombings and other attacks by Taleban insurgents routinely target Afghan government figures and Nato allies, but Kabul had recently enjoyed several weeks of relative calm.