Afghanistan said on Wednesday it was prepared to launch an investigation into reports that hundreds of Taliban fighters taken prisoner died in the north of the country following their surrender last year. But Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the powerful defence minister, immediately poured cold water on the reports.

"I don't believe what has been rumoured about the discovery of one mass grave consisting of several hundred (bodies) in Dasht-e Leili...and the defence ministry has been in touch with the responsible centres to assess this precisely," he told a news briefing.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that it had investigated the site of a mass grave at Dasht-e Leili near the northern town of Sheberghan but had suspended the probe as Afghanistan could not protect witnesses against reprisals.

Sayed Fazl Akbar, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said the Afghan government had yet to receive an official request from the United States for an investigation, but was ready to launch one itself or allow the international community to do so.
"Afghanistan is ready to investigate it," he said.

"We will do what we can and if we cannot do it then we will ask the international community to do it. In reality, since the world takes this issue seriously, Afghanistan wants to pursue it too," Akbar added.

He said the reported deaths happened during a power vacuum in Afghanistan before Karzai was installed as leader of the post-Taliban government in Kabul in late December.

"These types of incidents have taken place in several parts of Afghanistan at the time of the Taliban collapse. All have happened before the establishment of the interim government."

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan prisoners are crammed together in a notorious prison for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in the northern town of Sheberghan on August 16. REUTERS/Ahmad Maso