KABUL, July 22: Afghanistan warned Pakistan on Sunday that any further cross-border shelling could significantly harm relations, just days after the leaders of the two countries met to talk peace.

Provincial spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi said more than 300 heavy artillery shells and rockets were fired allegedly from Pakistan into Dangam district of eastern Kunar province on Friday and Saturday, killing at least four people.

On Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin summoned Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul to discuss the latest barrage of periodic shelling across the border, a foreign ministry statement said.

“Any continuation of such reported shelling against Afghan villages could have a significant negative impact on bilateral relations,” the statement quoted Mr Ludin as telling Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq.

Both sides agreed to hold a senior-level meeting of military officials soon in the Afghan city of Jalalabad over the shelling and improve military coordination along the Durand Line, the statement said.

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai in a separate statement said: “The attacks in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan are not acceptable to us and we are strongly condemning these attacks.

We believe that the continuation of such attacks will have a negative impact on the friendly relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Kunar police chief Gen Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said those attacks and others in nearby Nuristan had led hundreds of families to flee the area.

There is little or no Afghan or Nato military presence in the area and large swaths of the region are controlled by insurgent groups.

The information could not be independently verified because the area is largely off-limits to reporters.

President Hamid Karzai’s office said the issue was raised during a meeting of the national security council on Sunday and security officials were instructed “to put into place all due actions necessary”, without elaborating.

The cross-border attacks were also discussed in Kabul last week during an official visit by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Prime Ministers Ashraf and Cameron and President Karzai called for a common stand against insurgents operating in the lawless border areas.

Mr Ashraf, in response to a question at a joint news conference with Mr Karzai in Kabul on Thursday, said Pakistan was also attacked from Afghanistan and the issue had been raised in a meeting between the two leaders.

“Same like, from this side, from Kunar side, we get attacks on our armed forces, on our civilians.

“So we have discussed all these things, and now we have to do our utmost ... to control such happenings,” Mr Ashraf said.

Last week Islamabad said dozens of militants from Kunar province attacked a village near Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal area and appeared to be targeting members of a militia fighting Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani officials said 15 militants and two anti-Taliban militiamen were killed.

Pakistan has railed against Afghan and Nato forces for not doing enough to stop the rising number of cross-border attacks, which it says have killed dozens of members of its security forces.—Agencies