KABUL: US Vice President Dick Cheney met President Hamid Karzai in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, hours after a suicide blast at the US base where he had spent the night killed several people, an official said.

The leaders met at the presidential palace in Kabul, an official in the Afghan leader's office said, giving no further details.

They were due to pose for photographers after their talks.

Cheney and Karzai had been due to meet on Monday but bad weather prevented the vice president from travelling to the city from Bagram Air Base, about 60 kilometres away, where he had arrived from Pakistan.

A suicide attacker blew himself up outside the base on Tuesday. One US soldier and two Afghans were killed, the Bagram media office said.

The Afghan interior ministry said earlier that 18 people were killed, including three foreign soldiers.

Cheney's spokeswoman said he was not injured in the incident.

"The vice president is safe," spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said adding that the vice president is fine.