KHOST, Afghanistan - Five people including a policeman were killed and 14 others wounded Friday in a suicide car bomb attack on a police post in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, police said.

The incident, which was blamed on the Taliban, is the latest to target Afghan police who, with the country's army, are due to take control of security from international troops by 2014.

"The attacker used a Toyota van to attack a police post in Khost city," local police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai told AFP.

"Among the dead is one police officer and four adult civilians and among the injured there are two police officers, two women and 10 other male adults."

Eshaqzai added: "This is an act of terror and is done by the enemies of the people and government of Afghanistan."

This phrase is often used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban, who have been battling international forces in Afghanistan since being ousted from power in 2001.

The militant Islamists frequently target Afghan police in their campaign against President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government.

Earlier this week, 19 people including 15 police and an intelligence agent died in a string of attacks centred on police headquarters in Afghanistan's de facto southern capital, Kandahar.

Kandahar is seen as the birthplace of the Taliban and, although southern Afghanistan sees much of the worst fighting, international and Afghan forces are also locked in a tough fight with insurgents in parts of the east.

Last month, 13 civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in Paktika province, also in eastern Afghanistan.

Khost province, where the latest blast took place, borders Pakistan which is widely believed to be a key source of fighters, funds and supplies for the Taliban.

In 2009, Khost was the scene of the worst attack on US intelligence officials since 1983 when eight people were killed by a suicide bomber who was reportedly a triple agent at a CIA base.

There are currently around 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

The total strength of the Afghan police and army has risen by 36 per cent in the last year and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) projects that figures for police will rise above 120,000 by September.

But there are concerns over the quality of the force, which is beset by problems of illiteracy, corruption and desertion.

On Wednesday, the head of the European Union's police training force EUPOL, Jukka Savolainen, said that the process of training the police should have started earlier than it did.