Dadullah Mansoor made the remarks in an audiotape played Friday at a rally at Killi Nalai, a village about 45 miles west of Quetta near the Afghan border, said Abdul Sattar Chishti, the cleric who organised the event.

He said more than 12,000 people listened to the speech by the brother of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander who was killed in a US operation last month in southern Afghanistan. It was not immediately possible to verify Chishti's claims.

He said Mansoor vowed to avenge his brother's death and those of others killed while fighting US, Nato and Afghan forces.

"The blood of my brother will never go waste. We will never forget his sacrifices, and the role of other martyrs. We will complete Dadullah's mission by expelling Americans and liberating Afghanistan," Chishti quoted Mansoor as saying.

He said Mansoor also asked youths to participate in holy war against infidels as emotional participants chanted slogans in favour of Taliban chief Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Suspected Taliban militants attacked a local police commander's home early Saturday, killing five of his family members and sparking a gunbattle with police that left 10 insurgents dead, an official said.

The attack in the southeastern province of Ghazni killed the commander's wife, two sons and two nephews, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. The commander worked for Afghanistan's auxiliary police, a system of backup officers who supplement the country's regular police force.

Other auxiliary police called to the scene battled the insurgents, killing 10 of them, Bashary said.

The attack came one day after Taliban fighters targeted the home of a police official in the eastern province of Paktia. That assault led to a gunfight that left six insurgents dead.

Taliban militants often target police and government officials. More than 1,900 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on US, Nato and Afghan officials.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror. It has deployed about 90,000 troops in its northwestern tribal areas to flush out remnants of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their local supporters.

Although pro-Taliban elders have held similar rallies in northwestern tribal regions, protests the size of the one organised in Killi Nalai are rare.