The deadly blast is the latest in a string of attacks on Afghan security forces as they prepare to take responsibility for stability in parts of their war-torn country ahead of a total withdrawal of foreign combat troops by 2014.

The attack at the centre in Kunduz came four days after the province's police chief was killed by a suicide bomber amid an upsurge in violence in the area in recent months.

"There was a suicide attack at the army recruitment centre in Kunduz city," Mehboubullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz province, said of the latest attack.

He said that according to "preliminary information" 33 people were killed, mostly volunteers who wanted to join the army, and more than 40 others injured.

Kargar Noorughli, a public health ministry spokesman in Kabul, later said the death toll had risen to 36, including women and children.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP by telephone from an unknown location that the militant Islamist group was responsible for the bombing, the latest in a host of deadly attacks across Afghanistan in recent weeks.

AFP