Taliban rebels are earning a bounty of up to 200,000 Pakistani rupees ($2,300) for each NATO soldier they kill, according to insurgent commanders quoted by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

The money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan.

So far this year 213 NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Taliban commanders told the Times that the bounty had more than doubled since the beginning of last year.