Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought Wednesday to reassure Pakistan about his country's new partnership deal with India, which will see New Delhi help train Afghan security forces.

"Pakistan is a twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement that we signed yesterday with our friend will not affect our brother," Karzai told an audience in New Delhi.

Two suicide bombers struck Afghanistan's biggest southern city Kandahar on Monday, killing three people, officials said.

In the first blast, Assadullah Khalid, minister of border and tribal affairs and chief security coordinator for the south, claimed he was the target as two civilians were killed.

The operational leader of Taliban faction the Haqqani network denied killing the Afghan government's peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, in an interview with the BBC released Monday.

Sirajuddin Haqqani also denied U.S. allegations that the Haqqanis, blamed for a string of high-profile attacks on Western targets in the Afghan capital, were currently linked to Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI.

The killer of Afghan peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was Pakistani, a statement from Afghanistan's presidential palace said Sunday, quoting investigators.

Evidence shows that Rabbani's death last month "was plotted in Quetta and the person who carried out the suicide attack against Rabbani was a citizen of Pakistan," the statement said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed to continue efforts to make peace with Taliban-led insurgents in a speech on Friday at the funeral of the government's assassinated peace broker Burhanuddin Rabbani.

"The blood of the martyred (Rabbani) and other martyrs of freedom require us to continue our efforts until we reach peace and stability," Karzai said.

U.S. President Barack Obama embarks on a diplomatic marathon this week at the United Nations, touting his approach to Libya, but hoping to contain Palestinian ambitions for statehood.

Leaving behind for 48 hours domestic battles with Republican opponents and an uphill battle to see his jobs plan move through Congress, Obama will huddle with a host of world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and speak before the chamber early Wednesday.

Six Afghan civilians from the same family were killed by a coalition air strike in the insurgent-hit east of the country, local officials said Friday.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said he could not confirm civilians were killed but that several insurgents were among the dead in the operation at around midnight Thursday in Logar province.

Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday rejected a decision by the war-torn country's vote authorities to replace nine MPs as part of efforts to settle a long-running dispute over last year's elections.

After almost a year of street protests and controversy over last September's fraud-tainted parliamentary polls, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) this week ordered that nine MPs be replaced.

Up to 700 Afghans marched through Kabul on Tuesday to protest against a decision by the country's election commission to throw nine lawmakers out of parliament in a dispute over vote fraud.

The protestors condemned the United Nations, accusing its mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, of interference, an Agence France Presse reporter said.

Afghanistan's election commission on Sunday threw nine lawmakers out of parliament in a bid to settle nearly a year of disputes over fraud-tainted elections that have paralyzed the lower house.

Although President Hamid Karzai tasked the Independent Election Commission (IEC) with making a final ruling, it was not immediately clear whether its decision would finally end the row or run the risk of more angry protests.