Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened parliament for 2010 on Saturday by saying that NATO's efforts to prevent civilian deaths during its operations were not enough because innocent people were still dying.

Karzai made the comments as the NATO Afghan military alliance entered its 8th day offensive against the Taliban in the Helmand province.

"Afghan civilians should not become the target and there should not be civilian casualties in the fight against terrorism," Karzai said in a speech at the opening session of the Afghan parliament.

Karzai also repeated his call to Taliban fighters to renounce al-Qaida and join with the government - an appeal that may have more resonance after recent arrests of Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

"I call on the Taliban and other opposition groups who are fighting against their own country, that the out come of the fight can only mean problems and difficulties for this country," the Afghan leader told the 200 lawmakers after a month's recess.

During his speech, Karzai held up a picture of an eight-year-old girl who he said was the only one left to recover the bodies of her 12 relatives, all killed when two NATO rockets struck their home during the offensive in the southern town of Marjah.

He called the incident a tragedy for all Afghanistan.

Karzai said that NATO has made progress in reducing civilian casualties and air bombardments which have been responsible for some of the largest incidents of civilian deaths.

He also thanked NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal, who attended the speech.

However, Karzai stressed that the effort is not sufficient.

"We need to reach the point where there are no civilian casualties," Karzai said. "Our effort and our criticism will continue until we reach that goal."

The week-old operation in Marjah is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over routing insurgents as quickly as possible.

But the strategy has proved difficult.

His comments came as NATO reported that its troops killed another civilian in Marjah, bringing the civilian death toll from the operation to at least 16.

NATO troops fired on the man after he dropped a box that they believed held a bomb and started running toward them, NATO said in a statement.

They later found that the box contained materials that could have been used to make a bomb, but no explosive.

Despite the presence of the suspicious materials, NATO categorised the dead man as a civilian.

The unit involved will meet with local leaders to discuss how to keep such incidents from happening again, and make a traditional condolence payment to his family, NATO said.

The week-old operation in Marjah is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over routing insurgents as quickly as possible.

But it has proved difficult. The painstaking process of separating out innocent people from militants has also slowed troops' progress in gaining control of the town.

The operation in Marjah is the biggest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Twelve NATO troops have died so far in the offensive, and senior Marine officers say intelligence reports suggest more than 120 insurgents have died.

AP