AN AUSTRALIAN soldier and a civilian have been wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province.

The blast left the soldier and a civilian employed by the Australian Defence Force with wounds to their limbs, a Defence statement said.

It said an Australian Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle was serving with the Mentoring Reconstruction Task Force when it was struck by the bomb early on Saturday morning.

Both men sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries and were evacuated by helicopter to a military hospital at Tarin Kowt.

The soldier will be flown to Australia for medical treatment. His family has been informed.

The incident follows the death last week of Michael Fussell, 25, an Australian commando, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Oruzgan during a night offensive on Thursday morning. Two other soldiers were wounded.

Elsewhere yesterday, British soldiers killed an Afghan policeman in a car that was driving toward a NATO patrol at high speed in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Soldiers warned the approaching vehicle with hand signals, a mini flare and warning shots, but it continued its approach toward the convoy, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement yesterday.

"This was an unfortunate incident but I do not blame the foreign forces," said Helmand's police chief, Colonel Asadullah Sherzad.

Australian Associated Press