Kabul - The governor of Afghanistan's southern Logar province was killed when his vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb Saturday, police said. Taliban militants claimed responsibility.

Abdullah Wardak and three of his bodyguards were killed in Paghman district of Kabul province on their way to Logar, 40 kilometres south of Kabul city, said Abdul Razaaq, police chief of the district.

"It was around 8:00 am (0330 GMT) that a roadside bomb was remotely detonated when the governor's vehicle was passing by," Razaaq said.

Wardak, a former minister of martyrs and the disabled in President Hamid Karzai's 2002-04 transitional government, was attacked by "enemies of Afghanistan" - a term often used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban militants - about 400 meters from his home in Tapa Burjak area of the district, Razaaq said.

Barna Karimi, deputy director for the local governance department, an entity that oversees the work of country's 34 provincial governors, also confirmed Wardak's death.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid - talking to Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa by phone from an undisclosed location - claimed responsibility for the attack and said their fighters detonated the mine by remote control.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and called the killing "inhumane" and "against Islamic principles".

"Abdullah Wardak's death was a great loss for Afghan people... he was a true son of the country, who tried day and night for reconstruction and welfare of the country," Karzai said in a statement issued by his office.

Karzai also ordered an investigation into the incident and tasked the security authorities with bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Taliban militants, who lost power in late 2001, use suicide and roadside bomb attacks as part of their campaign to topple the Western- backed Afghan government.

The attack on Wardak raised concerns that Taliban militants have been able to penetrate the relatively secure province of the capital Kabul, targeting a senior Afghan government official not far from the city. (dpa)