KABUL, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has instructed security and defense agencies to further tighten country-wide security as fighting rages in the country, the Afghan Presidential Palace said Tuesday.

The president chaired a security meeting attended by National Security Advisor Hamdullah Muhib, acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid, acting Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi, and Mohammad Massoum Stanekzai, chief of national intelligence agency, at the Presidential Palace on Monday evening, the palace said in a statement.

After hearing security officials' reports about the overall security situations, Ghani instructed the officials to take necessary measures to improve the security situation and launch country-wide military operations in the future, according to the statement.

The statement came as Afghans are preparing for annual Nawroz Festival falling on Thursday which marks the Afghan New Year.

More than 100 Afghan soldiers and police officers as well as many civilians lost their lives and many others wounded following Taliban attacks across the country since the beginning of March.

The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces remain in control of most of Afghanistan's population centers and all of 34 provincial capitals, but Taliban insurgents control large portions of rural areas, staging coordinated large-scale attacks against Afghan cities and districts since early last year.

The president has also earlier ordered security agencies, mainly army and police officers to disarm all illegal armed individuals across the capital Kabul.