"The next thing we're going to go over is what to do if someone is shot in the chest," said the US Military Police officer from the 504th MP Battalion.

Lessons like this one at police sub-station 8, a small, heavily-fortified joint US-Afghan base, are taking place across the country as NATO troops rush to prepare Afghan forces to take responsibility for security nationwide.

The Afghan police have been seen typically as corrupt, incompetent and largely incapable of working unsupervised by US or NATO troops. Huge numbers of recruits leave after a short time because of the risks they face.

But despite the obstacles on a national level, and the sometimes fraught relations between US troops and their Afghan partners, both sides at police sub-station 8 insist that the training is progressing well.

After some Afghan National Police (ANP) officers tried out the techniques demonstrated, the morning session moved on to crime scene procedures.

"This is another thing we can help you with. This will help you prosecute the bad guys in Afghanistan," Private Steven Van Hulle told the group of about 10 policemen as they sat in a courtyard below machine-gun nests.

Nearby, a US military police sergeant took aside four senior officers to lecture them, with the aid of an interpreter, on leadership and the importance of setting an example to their men.

Setting up checkpoints, clearing buildings, patrolling, engaging with the public and marksmanship are the other main areas the training covers.

The police are seen as central to the goal of getting the Afghan authorities to take the lead in the fight against the Taliban, who were ousted after the US-led invasion in late 2001 but who continue to wage a deadly guerrilla war.

There are currently about 80,000 police officers and US and NATO forces hope to bring that number up to 134,000 by October next year, alongside the 170,000 personnel planned for the army by the same date.

US military leaders back the government's plan for the Afghan police and army to assume responsibility for security by 2014, with the timetable for the handover likely to dominate an upcoming NATO summit.

But there is still work to do, despite coalition claims of progress in building the capacity of local forces.

"The Afghan police are the problem and they are the solution to the problem," British Major General Nick Carter said last week before he handed over command of Afghanistan's volatile south to a US counterpart.

American military police here say that the wider problems that afflict the force are not issues at this sub-station.

"We've had a couple of examples where guys have left," said Lieutenant Derick Hoy, one of the MPs running the training, but added that absenteeism was not a major problem.

On patrol, the US soldiers put the Afghans at the front so they can engage with local people and encourage them to go to the police station to resolve their problems.

The Americans say illiteracy is a problem. Half of the men they are training can neither read nor write, a reflection of the high illiteracy rate in the country as a whole, which is estimated at up to 80 percent.

They hoped to bring in a contractor to provide reading and writing classes for the officers, who earn around 11,000 Afghanis (255 dollars) a month.

"Obviously the education poses a problem. But there are not many things out there (on the streets) that you need to read and write for. Back at the office the NCOs can do the paperwork." said Hoy.

Hamadullah Giagargund, 24, was one of the policemen at the morning session.

"The most important thing I learned was how to find IEDs," he said, referring to the improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs, which are the Taliban's weapon of choice to kill or maim patrolling security forces.

Giagargund and his classmates all said they were happy with the training, which they said was far better than the basic one-month course they got when they first joined the national force.

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