Sunday, September 18 2005 14:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kabul: Afghans streamed into polling stations under tight security today (Sept 18, 2005) for the country's first parliamentary elections in more than 30 years, defying threats by the ousted Taliban regime to disrupt the vote.

Violence marred the start of polling with a French soldier killed and another wounded in a bomb blast, while two rockets hit a UN warehouse in Kabul, lightly injuring a staff member.

Despite the bloodshed, officials expected a high turnout by the nearly 12.5 million Afghans eligible to vote, marking another step on a difficult path to democracy launched after the hardline Islamic Taliban fell in late 2001.

On the ballot papers, voters found a cross section of Afghanistan's strife-torn society, including warlords, drug kingpins, former Taliban and marking a step forward for the conservative country, women.

"I will vote for anyone who will help my country," said Abdul Rahim, 42, queuing to vote beneath the blue domes of the grand mosque in the western city of Herat.

President Hamid Karzai, who won Afghanistan's first presidential election in October 2004, said the vote showed the country was leaving behind decades of ruinous conflict.

"After 30 years of war, intervention and misery, today Afghanistan is moving forward," Karzai said as he cast his ballot in Kabul.

"It is making an economy, making political institutions and today we are completing the whole process, completing the laying down of the foundation of the Afghan state ... That is why we are making history."

The 26,000 polling stations, scattered from the parched southern deserts to the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush Mountains, opened at 6:00 am (0700 IST) and were due to close at 4:00 pm (1700 IST) local time.

Officials said voting hours might be extended to allow for queues as Afghans struggle with the newspaper-sized ballots required to fit in the 5,800 candidates taking part.

Full results are not expected until late October.

The United Nations, helping to organize election, said voters should not be intimidated by Taliban warnings that they could be hurt if they go to the voting stations.

A spike in violence linked to Taliban militants has left more than 1,000 people dead this year, including seven of the election candidates.

The French soldier was killed in Kandahar province, the former heartland of the Taliban, the French Chief of General Staff said in Paris.

Insurgents meanwhile attacked a security post in the eastern province of Khost, killing two policemen and wounding two US soldiers and an Afghan soldier, police told.