The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack targeting Norway's foreign minister at a luxury hotel in central Kabul.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, said the attack targeted Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was staying at the Serena hotel attending a Norwegian embassy meeting.

Monday's blast killed seven people.

Jonas Gahr Stoere was staying at the five-star Serena hotel attending a Norwegian embassy meeting when the Taliban fighters carried out the attack, Afghan officials said.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet said one of its journalists, Carsten Thomassen, 39, was one of those killed.

The interior ministry said a suicide attack at the entrance of the hotel was followed by a second explosion and gunfire.

At least five others, mostly guards, were injured.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Afghanistan, said the hotel was "a symbol of foreign presence" as dignitaries and diplomats all stayed there.

A Taliban spokesman told Al Jazeera that the attack by one suicide bomber and three other fighters targeted the hotel because "that is where the leadership of the enemy stays".

Stoere, who was at the hotel at the time of the attack and afterwards hid in the basement, was not hurt.

Afghan police and US troops surrounded the scene after the attack.

Norway has about 500 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of a Nato-led international force sent there after US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001.

PHOTO CAPTION 

Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere (C) arrives at Kabul international airport January 14, 2008. [Reuters]

Al-Jazeera