Four policemen and three suspected Taliban fighters were killed in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, police and a provincial official said on Sunday.

About a dozen suspected insurgents stormed a police checkpost on a main highway late on Saturday, sparking a fierce gun battle in which three policemen and an attacker were killed, Highway Police Commander Mohammad Nabi Allahyar said.

He blamed the attack in Zabul, on a highway that links Kandahar with Kabul, on remnants of the Taliban regime. Some of the 10 to 15 attackers were wounded but their comrades were able to evacuate them, he said.

Another policeman and two armed men were killed in a clash after a suspected Taliban ambush in Uruzgan province the same night, provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan said.

Afghan parliament sworn in

Members of the first Afghan parliament for more than 30 years were sworn in amid concern by rights groups about abuses and further threats by the Taliban.

Afghan commanders, former communists, Islamists, women's rights activists and technocrats were sworn in on Monday amid hopes of national reconciliation after decades of war.

Human Rights Watch says up to 60% of the deputies are former commanders or their proxies and the list of deputies reads like a Who's Who of protagonists of the bloody past, boding ill for efforts to account for abuses and to stamp out a drugs trade.

Swearing in ceremony

Members of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or lower house, and the 102-member upper house, or Meshrano Jirga, placed their hands on the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and were sworn in by Hamid Karzai, the president.

They swore to respect Islam, the constitution and the law after presidential elections won by US-backed Karzai last year and parliamentary polls in September.

The inauguration was the culmination of a plan to bring democracy to Afghansitan, drawn up after the US-led invasion in 2001 and later backed by the UN.

But many people have been disappointed by the election of factional leaders blamed for rights abuses in polls marred by significant fraud.

Cheney visit

Among foreign guests attending the inauguration was Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, who arrived after visiting Washington's more troubled front in Iraq.

Zahir Shah, 91, who was overthrown as king in 1973 by his cousin, Dawud Khan, who dissolved the last parliament, said: "I thank God that today I am participating in a ceremony that is a step towards rebuilding Afghanistan after decades of fighting.

"The people of Afghanistan will succeed!"

Shukria Barakzai, one of two women among more than a dozen candidates bidding to head the lower house, said: "This is a momentous day; I am excited because this is the first parliament we have had after so many decades."

PHOTO CAPTION

Soldiers outside a prison in Afghanistan. (AFP)