A key Pakistani route used to channel supplies to US and Nato troops in Afghanistan was briefly closed after suspected Taliban fighters attacked an army camp.

The attack on Sunday night killed a paramilitary soldier and wounded 10 more, a Pakistani official said.

A Pakistani official said early on Monday that supplies through the Khyber Pass had been suspended indefinitely after fighters attacked the military camp with rocket-propelled grenades.   

But he later said the route had been reopened after security forces captured 10 men suspected of carrying out the attack.   

"The road is open. We have lifted the curfew but our operation against the militants is still going on," Zar Bacha Khan, the official said.

Pakistani supply routes from the port of Karachi to land-locked Afghanistan are vital for Western forces battling the Taliban.

They are likely to be even more important as the US increases its troops in Afghanistan, perhaps doubling the number to about 60,000 this year.

Vulnerable supply chain

However, violence in the Khyber, such as the latest attack on Sunday, have forced Nato to look for alternative routes from central Asia into northern Afghanistan.

The other Pakistani supply route is through the border of Chaman, southwest of Khyber, to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. But this route has also come under attack in recent times.

The US defence department says that it sends 75 per cent of its supplies into Afghanistan through or over Pakistan, including 40 per cent of the fuel for its troops.

But Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks on the main route through the Khyber Pass since last year, exposing the vulnerability of the supply chain.