The punishments were administered in Kabul's sports stadium in front of thousands of witnesses.

The three men, all in their 30s, were lashed 38 times each, and sentenced to six months in prison after being found guilty by a Taleban military tribunal.

One of the men was a senior official in the ministry for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice - the religious police.

Afghan men must wear beards

The ministry is responsible for checking that men have long beards and that woman are fully covered at all times when outside their homes.

The official was found guilty of taking the equivalent of hundreds of dollars from the state treasury by using counterfeit documents with a forged defence ministry signature.

Another - the head of a Taleban intelligence department - was found guilty of accepting a bribe worth more than $800 in the local currency.

The third was a court official who was accused of accepting a much smaller bribe.

Punishing the upper echelons

Members of the Taleban have been punished before, including a young Taleb who was executed for murder early this year.

But our correspondent in Kabul, William Reeve, says the three officials are probably the most senior to be punished.

The Taleban, who now control about 90% of Afghanistan, say they want to build the world's purest Islamic state.

They say that Islamic punishments have helped bring peace and stability to the areas they control.