Islamabad  - Pakistan on Thursday denounced a bomb explosion that it said injured a policeman outside its consulate in the western Afghan province of Herat and blasted the government of President Hamid Karzai for failing to ensure security of Pakistani diplomats.

"The government of Pakistan holds the government of Afghanistan responsible for the safety and security of its personnel in its embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat, Kandhar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

We hope that the Afghan government will take its responsibility seriously, it said further.

Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Mohammad Anwar Anwarzai, was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad so that a formal protest over the blast could be lodged.

Relations between the two neighbouring countries have been strained in recent months. The Karzai government has pointed the finger at Pakistan for the resurgence of Islamist extremist Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The Afghan president blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for orchestrating the suicide car bombing in Kabul outside the embassy of its archrival, India.

Islamabad, on the other hand, says it has deployed more than 100,000 troops to prevent Taliban insurgents from crossing into Afghanistan, emphasizing that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Afghan forces should also deploy more troops on their side to control the infiltration. (dpa)