The first was killed in fighting with insurgents in the east while the second died in a roadside bomb attack, the alliance said in separate statements.

No further details were given, in line with ISAF policy.

The latest deaths take to 648 the number of foreign service personnel who have died in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org web site, which tracks coalition deaths.

This year has been the deadliest for overseas troops since the US-led operation to oust the hardline Islamist Taliban regime began in late 2001, with the insurgency at its most violent in the volatile south and east.

Five ISAF troops were killed by hostile fire in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday and two in southern Helmand province by improvised explosive devices, which have become the weapon of choice for Taliban-led militants.

The Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Omar said on Monday that they aim to step up tactical strikes at coalition forces "to entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union".

"This will force it (to) face disintegration after dealing a crushing and decisive blow at it that it would not be able to hold itself thereafter," he said in a rare public statement.

NATO leaders gather in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Friday for a two-day summit where the nine-year conflict in Afghanistan and the timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces is likely to be high on the agenda.

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