A Georgian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the defence ministry in Tbilisi said Friday -- the 12th from the ex-Soviet state to die serving alongside NATO-led forces fighting the Taliban.

Corporal Shalva Pailodze died from an injury sustained during an attack by Taliban insurgents, the ministry said in a statement.

Georgia is a staunch ally of the United States with ambitions to join NATO and has more than 900 troops serving in Afghanistan -- a major contribution from a small country of 4.4 million people.

Georgia's parliament last month voted to send another battalion to Afghanistan, almost doubling its contingent there.

Tbilisi's NATO aspirations have infuriated neighbour Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2008 over the Moscow-backed separatist region of South Ossetia.