* Worst apparent "rogue" shooting since November 2009
* Casualties at record levels
* Drawdown of foreign troops to begin next year (Adds Taliban statement, paragraphs 8-9)
By Paul Tait
KABUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Six NATO troops were shot dead by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform during a training exercise in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said -- the worst apparent "rogue" shooting in more than a year.
The incident appeared to be the latest in a run of attacks by renegade police and soldiers, underlining the pressure on NATO-led troops as they try to train Afghan forces rapidly to allow a handover of security responsibility from next year.
However, NATO and Afghan officials were unable to confirm whether the person who carried out the shooting was a genuine member of the border police or an insurgent infiltrator.
Afghan authorities said last year they were tightening vetting for the police and army after a similar incident when a renegade soldier killed five British troops on Nov. 3, 2009.
Aminullah Amarkhil, head of border police in eastern Afghanistan, said the shooting was in Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan. Most NATO troops in Nangarhar are American.
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"An individual in an Afghan Border Police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Forces during a training mission today, killing six service members in eastern Afghanistan," the NATO-led ISAF said in a statement.
The statement said the gunman had also been killed. It gave no other details, including the nationality of those killed.
The Taliban Islamist insurgents, usually quick to claim attacks on NATO troops, did not claim responsibility this time. In an email to media, they said a policeman had turned his weapon on his trainers.
TENSIONS RISE
It was the worst daily casualty toll suffered by ISAF since eight troops were killed in five separate incidents on Oct. 14.
U.S. and NATO leaders agreed this month to a schedule set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for foreign forces to end combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who will review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, has said Washington will begin a gradual drawdown from July 2011.
Obama and NATO leaders have come under increasing domestic pressure over the unpopular war, with military and civilian casualties at their worst levels since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 despite the presence of about 150,000 foreign troops.
At least 2,238 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in November 2001. This year is easily the bloodiest of the war, with more than 660 dead troops.
About 1,400 of the dead personnel have been Americans.
The rapid creation of a national army and police force since the Taliban were ousted has seen tens of thousands of Afghans join up, raising concerns that former insurgents or sympathisers may be among them.
Earlier this month three ISAF troops were shot by an Afghan soldier in the south, and in August two Spanish police and an interpreter were killed by a policeman they were training.
In July, an Afghan soldier killed three British Gurkha soldiers. A week later, an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. contractors inside a base in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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