Eleven Afghan soldiers killed in latest attack in Kabul

"We will not allow the Taliban to win!" he said on Twitter on Sunday.

But Ghani, embroiled in confrontation with provincial powerbrokers defying central rule, faces anger from an increasingly frustrated population, who want him to set aside political divisions and focus on security.

"People think the government is working very badly, that the security agencies think about themselves and don't care, and the international coalition just wants to fight with air strikes and doesn't have any good intelligence," said Najib Mahmood, political science professor at Kabul University.

Saturday's blast in one of the most heavily protected parts of the city, close to foreign embassies and government buildings, was the worst in the Afghan capital since a truck bomb near the German embassy killed 150 people in May.

The May blast triggered bloody anti-government protests but there has been no sign of any such agitation this week.

A few hours after Monday's attack, Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived in Kabul. Indonesia has the world's biggest Muslim population, and Widodo has proposed its Islamic scholars could help promote Afghan peace.