American commanders in Afghanistan today insisted that US soldiers acted in self-defence when they opened fire on a crowd on Monday, provoking the worst rioting in Kabul since the fall of the Taleban.

At least 20 people died in two days of violence and curfews had to be imposed on the streets of the Afghan capital to restore order.

Today, as US officers defended the behaviour of their soldiers, it emerged that the fledgling Afghan Parliament passed a motion late last night to seek the prosecution of American troops responsible for triggering the violence.

The riots exposed simmering anti-western sentiment in Kabul that has been agitated by the swelling violence in Afghanistan, the worst since the US-led invasion four years ago. More than 3,300 British soldiers are currently taking over the restive Helmand province in southern Afghanistan as Nato assumes command of the military mission to the country.

Monday's disturbances started after a US military truck crashed in the north of Kabul during the morning rush hour. The truck collided with a line of parked cars before careering into a busy crossroads, killing five people.

As hundreds of angry people arrived at the scene, Afghan police struggled to control the crowd and a second US convoy arrived. Stone-throwing escalated to gunfire and crowds swept through the centre of the city, looting shops, besieging a television station and burning the offices of an American aid group.

Today, Colonel Tom Collins said a preliminary investigation suggested that the US troops had reacted reasonably: "Our initial investigation ... shows fire came from the crowd, and our soldiers used their weapons to defend themselves," he told journalists in Kabul.

Colonel Collins said that video footage showed US troops firing a mounted machine gun over the heads of the crowd but he could not say whether any other shots were fired at Afghan civilians and who fired first. "Our investigation is still looking into this," he said.

"Just because coalition soldiers weren’t hurt or injured doesn’t mean there wasn’t imminent danger. Deadly intent on the part of the aggressors can be a rock caving in the side of your head. Our soldiers felt threatened."

The American attempt to smooth over the violence differed sharply to a motion passed by a closed session of the Afghan parliament yesterday.

Saleh Mohammed Saljuqi, an assistant to the parliamentary speaker, told the Associated Press today that legislators had asked the Government to prosecute those responsible for the crash and ensuing riots.

"Those responsible for the accident on Monday should be handed over to Afghan legal authorities," Mr Saljuqi cited the motion as saying.

A US military spokeswoman, Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, said she had not seen the motion and declined to comment. Earlier, Colonel Collins said the lorry driver was not under arrest or suspected of any wrongdoing. He said the likeliest cause of the crash was a failure of the truck's brakes.

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