The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) human rights team was sent to the western province of Herat after local claims that scores of civilians were killed in Friday's strikes.

"Investigations by UNAMA found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men," special representative Kai Eide said.

"Fifteen other villagers were wounded or otherwise injured," he said in a statement.

The matter was of "grave concern" to the United Nations, Eide added.

A separate investigation appointed by President Hamid Karzai said over the weekend that more than 90 civilians were killed in the strikes.

The toll is one of the highest for civilians killed in military action since international troops started deploying to Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the hardline Taliban regime and root out other extremists.

The US-led coalition had initially said only 30 Taliban had died, but acknowledged on Tuesday that five civilians -- two women and three children -- were dead in the strikes that also killed a Taliban target.

"We believe those to be family members of the targeted militant, Mullah Sadiq. He was important for us to target," US Lieutenant Nathan Perry told AFP from the main US military base at Bagram north of Kabul.

The UN special representative said his team met with the district governor and local elders on Monday, and interviewed people from the affected areas.

The villagers said foreign and Afghan military personnel entered the village on the night of August 21.

"Military operations lasted several hours during which air strikes were called in," his statement said.

"The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some seven to eight houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others," he said.

"The impact of such operations undermines the trust and confidence of the Afghan people in efforts to build a just, peaceful and law-abiding state," he said.

Eide called on Afghan and international troops to thoroughly review the operation to avoid repeating the incident.

The Afghan government on Monday also demanded a review of all rules regulating the international military presence in Afghanistan, saying that its repeated demanded for an end to civilian casualties had gone unheeded.

"Air strikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians must be stopped," a cabinet statement said.

The government was not asking the international troops -- now numbering almost 70,000 from about 40 nations -- to leave, Karzai's chief aide, Homayun Hamidzada, told reporters Tuesday.

"This is not Afghanistan's government demand nor the demand of Afghanistan's people," he said. "We need the foreign forces until our own military institutions are able to defend Afghanistan."

But the country had come a long way in establishing itself since 2001, when the Taliban regime was toppled.

"The requirement of time -- as well as painful incidents of civilian casualties -- compelled the Afghan government to demand talks on regulating the presence of international forces in Afghanistan," he said.

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