Kabul - Three NATO-led soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, the military said.

The soldiers were part of more than 50,000 NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that have been deployed to Afghanistan from 40 nations following the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

ISAF did not reveal the nationalities of the dead soldiers, nor did it say where in the eastern region the incident took place. Most of the forces operating in the eastern region under the alliance's command are from the US.

Kabul, Oct. 13 : The American commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Major General David D. McKiernan, has expressed confidence about winning the war against the Taliban.

General McKiernan, who leads more than 65,000 troops from about 40 foreign countries, including 33,000 Americans, said at a news conference in Kabul that there had been “too many” reports in the media recently asserting that the foreign forces and their Afghan allies were losing the war.

Budapest  - NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed Friday's news that Russian troops had completed their withdrawal from Georgia's buffer zone, in accordance with an international deal.

But the secretary general also said it was still too early for NATO to normalize its relations with Russia in the aftermath of the August conflict.

"It is encouraging that Russia seems to be withdrawing its forces back to the pre-conflict lines," de Hoop Scheffer said at a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Budapest.

Budapest  - NATO is to deploy up to seven warships off the Somali coast to defend UN ships delivering food aid from attacks by pirates, alliance officials said Thursday.

The decision, taken by NATO defence ministers meeting in Budapest, follows a specific request from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a similar initiative agreed by the European Union last week.

"There will soon be NATO military vessels off the coast of Somalia, deterring piracy and escorting food shipments," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

Budapest - NATO on Thursday said Russia had been fully informed about a cooperation agreement signed in late September by the alliance and the United Nations.

"We briefed the Russians on a regular basis on this. Everybody in the UN knew. We don't understand their concern at this stage," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO defence ministers' meeting in Budapest.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Lavrov as expressing "surprise" at what was being described by the Russian media as "a secret deal".

Budapest - NATO defence ministers were Thursday locked in tricky discussions over how best to help the Afghan authorities crack down on the country's illegal drugs industry, whose proceeds are in part used by the Taliban to finance the insurgency.

Speaking ahead of a two-day meeting in Budapest, Afghan Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Wardak said he would ask the alliance "to support our efforts in the counter-narcotics campaign."