"An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was killed by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan yesterday," the force said in a statement without giving further details.

NATO does not release the nationality of casualties prior to notification of next of kin, leaving the job for their home countries.

The latest death takes to 86 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action, according to a tally maintained by icasualties.org.

ISAF numbers more than 58,000 troops from 42 countries, according to its latest information. The force works alongside a US-led coalition that is estimated to number around 10,000 although the figure is not made public.

The foreign troops are fighting alongside Afghan government forces against a rising Taliban insurgency that has undermined a post-Taliban reconstruction drive and institution-building in Afghanistan.

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Bishkek (AFP) March 5, 2009
Kyrgyzstan is ready to talk to the United States about keeping open an airbase used to support operations in Afghanistan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was quoted on Thursday as saying.