Demonstrations in Kandahar and Jalalabad continue over Koran burning

Fourteen people, including seven UN staff, were killed in violence after similar protests on Friday.

US President Barack Obama described the killings as "outrageous" and the Koran burning as "intolerance and bigotry".

Ten people died following protests in Kandahar on Saturday and dozens more were injured.

Demonstrators in Kandahar city - the birthplace of the Taliban - today marched on the main UN office. There were also reports of smaller protests in two other districts of Kandahar province.

The protests have now spread to the eastern city of Jalalabad, where hundreds of protesters peacefully blocked a main road for three hours.

The crowd shouted for US troops to leave Afghanistan and burnt an effigy of Obama, according to an Associated Press photographer.

The UN's chief envoy to Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, blamed Friday's violence in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on the Florida pastor who burnt the Koran on 20 March.

"I don't think we should be blaming any Afghan," de Mistura said. "We should be blaming the person who produced the news - the one who burned the Koran. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offending culture, religion, traditions."

The UN would temporarily re-deploy 11 staff members to Kabul while their office in Mazar-e Sharif was rebuilt, he said, but there would be no evacuation.

In a statement published on Saturday evening, Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters in Afghanistan.

"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.”

The controversy began in Florida on 20 March, when Pastor Wayne Sapp soaked a Koran in kerosene, staged a "trial" during which the Islamic holy book was found guilty of "crimes against humanity", and then set it alight.

The incident took place under the supervision of Pastor Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.