A British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, while four road construction workers and two militants were killed elsewhere in the country, officials said Thursday.

The British soldier was killed by insurgent fire in Nad Ali district in the southern province of Helmand on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said in a statement.

NATO-led forces in Kabul also confirmed the death of the soldier in a statement.

"We are saddened by this brave serviceman's death, and our deepest condolences go to his family and loved ones, especially during this holiday season," Captain Mark Windsor, a NATO spokesman said.

The soldier was the seventh British serviceman to die in the province in the past two weeks. More than 130 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since their deployment following the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.

Elsewhere, four road construction workers were killed and two others were wounded in a rocket attack in Souki district of eastern Kunar province on Wednesday, Engineer Haseeb Karimzai, director of the Afghan Road Construction Company said.

"They were working on the road when a rocket fired from an unknown place hit the road close to the work site, killing and wounding our workers" he said.

Karimzai accused the US-led coalition forces stationed in the area of firing the rocket.

But Abdul Jalal Jalal, provincial police chief, said the attack was "the work of enemies of Afghanistan," a term often used by Afghan officials to describe the Taliban militants.

Coalition spokesmen were not available for comment.

In another incident, US-led coalition forces killed two militants and detained two others in an operation in Taqab district of the north-eastern province of Kapisa on Wednesday, the US military said in a statement.

The targeted militants were involved in roadside bomb attacks and other direct attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in the region, the statement said.

Despite the onset of winter, Taliban-led insurgents have continued to mount attacks on Afghan and some 70,000 international troops stationed in the country.

More than 4,000 people - mostly insurgents - have been killed in conflict in the first eight months of this year, according to the United Nations. Thousands more people including militants, civilians, and Afghan and foreign forces were killed in fighting over the past four months.