KANDAHAR:A suicide bomber blew himself up killing 10 civilians in Afghanistan on Thursday, the second attack on the same day that President Hamid Karzai was sworn into office, police said.

The bombing in southern province Uruzgan followed an apparent suicide attack in the neighbouring province of Zabul which killed two US soldiers and took place around the same time President Hamid Karzai was being inaugurated.

"Ten civilians were killed and 13 others were injured," Uruzgan deputy police chief Mohammad Gulab Wardak told AFP.

The bomber was wearing an explosive-packed vest which he detonated near a convoy of Afghan security forces, he said.

Also Thursday, police said Afghan security forces backed by tribal militia killed six Taliban militants in fighting in southwestern Farah province.

The attack on the Taliban was launched after the rebels beheaded two tribal leaders on the weekend, said provincial police chief, Faqir Mohammad Askar.

A US-led offensive in late 2001 pushed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, but the Islamist insurgents are now waging a campaign of attacks as part of an expanding campaign to topple the new Western-backed government.

Karzai, in a wide-ranging speech following his inauguration in Kabul pledged to convene a "loya jirga" or grand assembly of tribal leaders to push for peace and reconcile some Taliban leaders.

Karzai is under pressure from his Western allies to do more to fight widespread corruption which many believe has contributed to the virulence and spread of the Taliban insurgency.