Thousands of Afghans protested against the United States in the northeast on Friday, the largest demonstration since a small U.S. church said it planned to burn copies of the Koran, an Afghan official said.

After special Eid prayers to mark the end of Ramadan, the crowd, estimated by a governor's spokesman at 10,000, poured into the streets from mosques in Badakhshan province chanting anti-U.S. slogans.

There were no signs of disturbance, the spokesman said.

A protester against a US pastor's plans to burn copies of the Qur'an is reported to have been shot dead in northern Afghanistan after crowds attacked a Nato base.

The man was killed in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan, a provincial government spokesman said. It happened when thousands of worshippers poured onto the streets after Eid prayers had been held in nearby mosques.

The crowd was estimated at around 10,000 people. Some had hurled stones at a Nato base run by Germans, and the protester was shot when troops inside opened fire, Amin Sohail said.

A proposed Islamic community center near ground zero will include separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, the imam behind plans for the facility wrote in an opinion piece published online Tuesday.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote in The New York Times that the attention surrounding the plans for the $100 million community center just blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks "reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship."