Nearly 700 civilians were killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan in the first half of 2008, an increase of 62 per cent from the same period a year earlier, a senior United Nations official said Sunday.

The latest figures suggest ordinary Afghans are suffering greatly, particularly from stepped-up militant attacks, which are making it harder for emergency aid to get to civilians, said John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief.

"The humanitarian situation is clearly affected and made worse by the ongoing conflict in different parts of the country," Holmes said Sunday in Kabul during a visit.

UN figures showed that 698 civilians died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year, compared to 430 who died in the first six months of 2007.

Most of the casualties were caused by insurgents, but there also were still "significant numbers" caused by the international military forces, Holmes said.

Anti-government militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the UN numbers. The cause of 21 deaths was unclear.

"It is clear that the international military forces are making every effort to minimize civilian casualties and recognize the damage this does and want to deal with that," Holmes said.

In response, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the UN Human Rights rapporteur accused the security forces in May of killing 200 civilians and at that time he said those numbers were far higher than the alliance would recognize.

"And that is still the case," he said, without providing other statistics.

Afghan leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, have accused NATO and the U.S.-led coalition of recklessly endangering civilians by using excessive force, including airstrikes, in residential areas.

But foreign commanders insist they take all reasonable precautions to avoid killing innocents and say militants routinely fire on them from houses and flee into villages.

With files from the Associated Press