STOCKHOLM: The European Union on Saturday fiercely criticised NATO over an air strike that left scores dead in Afghanistan, which they said undermined efforts at nation-building they had begun to focus on.

"This was a big mistake," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters as he arrived for a second day of talks with his EU counterparts in Stockholm.

"We have to look into this and to denounce those responsible."

It emerged that German troops had ordered the air strike Friday, in which up to 90 people, including civilians, were killed according to Afghan authorities.

Germany's European Affairs Minister Guenther Gloser was mum on the issue.

However German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung defended the action, saying in the Bild newspaper: "When just six kilometres (four miles) away from us, the Taliban take two fuel tankers, that represents a serious danger for us."

The air strike destroyed the fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban at a time when witnesses said villagers had rushed towards the vehicles, carrying any container they could to collect free fuel at the insurgents' invitation.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn denounced the NATO bombing which has triggered an outcry over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops in an eight-year war.

"I cannot understand that bombs can be dropped so easily and swiftly," Asselborn said in Stockholm.

"Even if there was only one civilian there, this operation should not have taken place."

Afghan officials said the dead were mostly insurgents, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai said any targeting of civilians was unacceptable.

The French and Luxembourg ministers' comments added to a growing chorus of criticism of NATO's actions.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday called for an "urgent investigation" into the air strike.

"It's important that we are very open and clear about what happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again," Miliband told reporters in Stockholm.

His Italian counterpart Franco Frattini did not mince his words either: "These are terrible acts that should never happen."

NATO has promised an enquiry into the incident which came just as the European ministers had hoped to concentrate on building up Afghanistan's infrastructure and to provide it with the tools required to become a fully functioning and viable democracy.

That task was already difficult enough, given the menace of the Taliban militia and the country's ongoing presidential vote count, with the opposition already calling foul.

However the assembled EU foreign ministers did take a first look at draft proposals for a durable democracy and functioning state.

In order to tackle Afghanistan's huge drug production and trafficking problem, the proposals stress the need for "rural development and alternative production and giving a chance to the farmers," EU External Relations Commission Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

In other areas, such as health care and education, the 27-nation bloc started a "blue book" where EU members and the European Commission would detail their activities so as to avoid duplication and increase effectiveness of all aid efforts.

Another idea is to set up a kind of civil academy to train administrators.

Ferrero-Waldner said there was broad ministerial support for the idea which must now be refined and fleshed out.

She stressed that it was vital to have a reliable, non-corrupt government in place, saying otherwise it would be like throwing money down a hole.

Frattini said meanwhile the EU was hammering out plans for an international conference in Kabul early next year on Afghanistan's reconstruction that would be attended by EU foreign ministers.

Afghan electoral authorities on Saturday cancelled the scheduled release of the results of the Afghan presidential election which was held on August 20.

Throughout the laborious process of gradual announcements, the two main contenders for the presidency, incumbent Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, have each claimed victory.

Abdullah, formerly foreign minister, has also alleged widespread vote-rigging by Karzai's camp and has threatened to reject any result he regards as compromised.