NEW DELHI, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - India on Monday pledged an additional 450 million dollars to Afghanistan for reconstruction, bringing the total cash it has promised the war-ravaged country since 2001 to well over a billion dollars.

The major increase in aid, announced during a visit to New Delhi by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, comes a month after the Indian embassy in kabul was hit by a major suicide attack that New Delhi blamed on regional rival Pakistan.

After the attack, India vowed to maintain a strong presence in Afghanistan -- seen as an important strategic battleground for New Delhi and Islamabad.

India will 'allocate an additional 450 million dollars, over and above the 750 million dollars' already pledged, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters after meeting Karzai.

'We will fulfil all our commitments,' he added.

India is among the top donors to post-Taliban Afghanistan, engaging itself in many reconstruction projects in the country since November 2001, when the hardline Taliban militia were driven out of Kabul.

Some 4,000 Indians work in Afghanistan on road building and hydroelectric projects.

Last month, a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 60 people, including the country's military attache and a diplomat.

Kabul and New Delhi have blamed the bombing on Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but Islamabad denies any role.

Pakistani Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said on the sidelines of a South Asian summit in Sri Lanka over the weekend that his government would look into the charge.