Kabul, Aug 19 (DPA) Afghan security forces Wednesday boosted their presence on Kabul's streets with less than 24 hours to go before the start of presidential and provincial elections while the Taliban issued a new threat, warning voters to stay off the country's roads and highways.

The militant group announced a boycott of Thursday's elections two weeks ago and said it would block all of Afghanistan's roads in a bid to prevent voters from getting to polling stations.

'All Afghan people are hereby informed that all highways and roads of the country are closed to traffic from Wednesday morning till the end of tomorrow,' Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday.

'In case of a violation, if anyone is harmed by the mujahedin (holy warriors), they will be responsible for it themselves,' Mujahid said.

However, General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the defence ministry, rejected the Taliban's road closure claim while saying around 300,000 Afghan and international forces were on high alert before the polls.

'We have control of all roads and highways, and we are protecting them both by ground and air forces,' Azimi said by phone from a joint Afghan and NATO Central Command office, which is overseeing security for the elections.

While the Taliban was warning of more attacks on election day, Afghan security authorities and NATO have announced that they would halt their offensive operations Thursday and instead focus on protecting voters.

'While we will obey the order for halting our military assaults, our armed forces will severely respond to any attack that is mounted by the enemies,' Azimi said.

The Taliban's warning came after a series of brazen attacks by militants in the immediate run-up to the election, in which President Hamid Karzai, the frontrunner, is vying against about 30 other candidates for re-election.

A gunbattle with Afghan forces erupted after Taliban fighters occupied a bank in central Kabul Wednesday morning, a day after the militants fired rockets into the presidential palace and unleashed a suicide bombing on a NATO convoy in the eastern part of the capital, killing 10 people.