SHIPPING containers, the bulky metal boxes that carry cargo around the world on trucks, trains and ships, have gone upmarket.

Over the past year as foreign governments and aid groups have dispatched workers to assist with the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan, Kabul is witnessing a new trend - shipping-container living.

The largest collection of containers is no longer found in the city's machine-parts neighbourhood but on the expansive, heavily-fortified grounds of the US Embassy, the Washingtion Post reported.

More than 100 on the embassy compound provide housing for some while others serve as a recreation centre, a laundry, a cafeteria and even the ambassador's residence.

Mr Matthew A Weiller, the officer in charge of logistics for the embassy, said: 'We needed to have housing for people fast, and this was the best way we could find.'

Mr Weiller explained the situation from the 5m-long by 2.4m-wide comfort of his own 'hootch,' as they are called.

One shipping container usually gets divided into two hootches.

Each contains a single or bunk bed, a small refrigerator, a heater/air-conditioner, a shower and toilet, a sink, a microwave oven and a television.

By far the most extensive and artfully designed hootch belongs to Ambassador Robert Finn who, after all, needs space to entertain congressional delegations and heads of state, as well as for his living quarters.

Security concerns dictated that diplomats live on the embassy grounds, yet no housing had ever been built there, except for an underground bunker used only in emergencies.

So the embassy contracted a firm based in Dubai to supply refurbished containers at a cost of US$13,000 ($22,400) each.

Containers cost about US$2,300 brand-new. The extra cost stems not only from the remodelling but from having them shipped to Afghanistan, a trip that involves travel along dirt roads with potholes the size of craters.

Mr Alberto Fernandez, public affairs officer for the embassy, said: 'It's a helluva lot better than what was here before, and better than what most of us were expecting when we headed out to Afghanistan.

'People get their own rooms and a microwave, and that's pretty darn nice.'

One envoy said he was pleased to read recently that shipping container chic has begun to emerge in New York, which means the Kabul embassy apparently is far ahead of the curve.