Afghanistan's main high-security prison was under siege today as the Government wheeled out tanks and heavy guns to win back control of the ramshackle complex from rioting inmates.

Abdul Salaam Bakshi, the chief of Afghanistan's prisons, said food, water and electricity had been cut off from the blocks which have become overrun by around 1,300 prisoners, thought to be under the orders of some 300 al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.

Although the inmates are armed only with clubs, shards of glass and small knives, they have held at least two blocks of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul for more than 48 hours, when prison officials tried to make them wear new, blue uniforms. Over the walls, chants of "God is Great!" could be heard today.

Afghan officials have been unable reach a wing of the prison where up to 70 women and 70 children are held, raising fears for their safety. Reports from the scene said the prisoners had either dug a tunnel or demolished a wall to reach the women.

Four prisoners are thought to have been killed and more than 30 injured in the initial gunfight that followed the riot on Saturday. Today, the inmates allowed the Red Cross to remove the bodies and take the wounded away, of whom 20 needed hospital treatment.

So far, Afghan security forces have been adamant that they want to resolve the siege peacefully but the appearance of around 200 soldiers and heavy weaponry today suggested that the Government may be preparing to storm the prison, a Soviet-era compound built in the 1970s.

"We can take all these prisoners in one hour," Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, Afghanistan's Deputy Justice Minister said today. "But to prevent bloodshed we are trying to negotiate."

Mr Hashimzai later told Agence France Presse that a verbal agreement had been reached to end the standoff and that the prisoners denied attacking the female inmates: "They said, ’We treated them like our sisters,'" he said.

Negotiators said the prisoners had handed over a list of grievances to the government which included complaints over the crowded and unsafe condition of the prison, which is synonymous with the torture and disappearance of thousands of Afghans under Soviet and Taleban rule.

A man claiming to represent the inmates in Block One of the jail contacted Associated Press today, saying that the bulk of the prisoners were common criminals demanding retrials: "Two-thirds of the prisoners here are innocent. The courts were unfair," he said.

Before the riot and subsequent damage, Pul-e-Charkhi was being renovated and extended to make room for 110 Afghan detainees who are currently being held by the US in Guantanamo Bay.

The unrest was reportedly sparked by an attempt by the prison authorities to make hundreds of prisoners, including militant suspects, wear distinctive uniforms. Seven Taleban inmates managed to escape last month, with the alleged collusion of several guards, after disguising themselves as visitors.

In an earlier disturbance, five guards and four inmates, again believed to be al-Qaeda or Taleban militants, died during a standoff in December 2004.

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