An eight-year-old Afghan girl was killed when a bag of explosives given to her by Taliban insurgents exploded as she approached a police outpost in southern Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior said: 'The insurgents handed over a bag with a homemade bomb to an eight-year-old girl and asked her to take it to police forces.
‘As the girl was getting close to the police, it exploded and killed the girl.’
There have been occasional cases of insurgents using female bombers - or more commonly of fighters dressing as women in burqas - but the use of children had been almost unheard of until recently.
In May, Afghan police paraded four boys, all under 13, they said had been recruited as bombers from their homes in neighbouring Pakistan.
One of the boys said they had been told they would live through the suicide attacks.
The Taliban later denied they were recruiting children to carry out suicide attacks.
The latest incident took place in the Char Chino district of Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan. There were no police casualties.
The death comes as four NATO troops were killed over the past two days, including two Spanish soldiers who died today after a homemade bomb exploded in western Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a bombing at an Afghan hospital yesterday has increased.
The health director of Logar province where the blast happened, put the death toll at 38, while the police chief of the district said that 33 people had been killed.
Military and civilian casualties hit record levels in 2010, the most violent year of the war since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
Elsewhere, a special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan is in Kabul for regional talks in the wake of President Barack Obama's announcement of a US drawdown from the country.
Ambassador Marc Grossman, will highlight US commitment to a 'long-term, enduring partnership' with Afghanistan.
During his visit, Mr Grossman will also attend a meeting of the International Contact Group for Afghanistan.
In addition, he will hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta and United Nations Special Representative Staffan de Mistura.
The special envoy will also represent the US at the third meeting of the US-Afghanistan-Pakistan Core Group 'to support a process of Afghan-led reconciliation.'
Mr Obama announced on Wednesday a plan to withdraw 33,000 surge troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer, which his military commanders said was more 'aggressive' than they had recommended.
The move came as the American public grows increasingly impatient with a war that has dragged on for nearly a decade.
White House officials insist Mr Obama's move was based on military strategy, not politics, and that progress on the battlefield and the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had made the drawdown possible.
