Monday's attack on the Indian embassy ended a relative lull in violence in Kabul [AFP]

Najib Nikzad, an interior ministry spokesman, said Monday's blast in Kabul killed 40 people.

Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Afghan public health ministry, said 141 people were wounded in addition to the deaths.

The ministry collected information from the scene and several Kabul hospitals.

The blast, which was felt across much of Kabul, took place near a row of metal turnstiles outside the Indian embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas.

The explosion damaged two embassy vehicles entering the compound during the morning rush hour.

Security attache killed

Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, announced in New Delhi that the Indian military attache and a diplomat were among those killed.

He named them as Brigadier R Mehta and V Venkat Rao.

Mukherjee said two Indian security guards and an Afghan national who worked at the embassy were also killed.

He said India would be sending a high-level delegation to Kabul in the coming days.

The Indian embassy sits on a busy, tree-lined street in central Kabul near the interior ministry offices.

The ministry building is a large Soviet-built concrete complex.

Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast.

'Utter devastation'

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, the Afghan foreign minister, visited the embassy soon after the attack to show support, Sultan Ahmad Baheen, his spokesman, said.

"The enemies of Afghanistan and India's relationship cannot hamper our relationship by conducting such attacks," Baheen said.

India has provided significant support to Afghanistan's efforts to restore order after the removal of the Taliban, which seized power in 1996 until they were pushed out.

Rising violence

The explosion on Monday was the deadliest attack in Kabul this year and the worst since a suicide bomber attacked an army bus last September, killing 30 people.

While Afghanisan has seen increasing violence in recent months, Kabul has been largely spared from random bomb attacks that Taliban fighters use in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

In other violence, a roadside bomb similar to those used by the Taliban killed three Afghan police officers in Kandahar province and a separate one killed  four more in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan, government officials said.

Also in Kandahar, a Canadian soldier with Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) died in an explosion that hit a patrol, a Canadian commander said.

Private Colin William Wilmot was taking part in a security patrol when an explosive device blew up near him, Brigadier-General Denis Thompson said in a statement.

Canada has deployed 2,500 soldiers in southern Afghanistan as part of the 40-nation Isaf, which numbers about 53,000 soldiers.

The latest death brings the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan since 2002 to 87 soldiers and one diplomat.

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