KABUL, October 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. special forces bodyguards, providing 24-hour protection to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, were Sunday, October 27, involved in a stand-off with Afghan soldiers, news agencies reported.

According to security guards at Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, the dispute arose when (U.S.) men guarding Karzai refused to allow Afghan soldiers attending a conference to bring their weapons into the venue, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"There was a small problem, they were not letting Afghans go in, there were no shots fired, it was just something simple," said one guard who did not wish to be named.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, where the conference was taking place, confirmed the incident but was unable to give further details.

Karzai was among several senior Ministers attending the event to mark the anniversary of the death of Afghan resistance hero Abdul Haq, killed by Taliban officials last year for aiding U.S.-led operations against Afghanistan.

The Afghan President has enjoyed American military protection since the assassination earlier this year of vice President Haji Abdul Qadir, Haq's brother.

On September 5, the bodyguards shot dead a gunman who fired at Karzai, missing him by inches during a visit to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Sunday's incident is not the first time his protection forces and Afghan army troops have nearly come to blows. A similar stand-off at the Presidential palace was reported just over one month ago.

The dispute will add to speculation of a growing rift between Karzai and his Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, chief of the Afghan army, who is said to disapprove of the U.S. guards.

Fahim arrived back in Afghanistan late Friday, October 25, after a prolonged trip to Europe which was dogged by rumors that Karzai was getting ready to cut him adrift.

Both Fahim and government officials have continued to deny that Karzai and the Defense Minister do not see eye-to-eye.

Karzai led tributes to Haq Sunday at a conference at the government's Interior Ministry in the centre of Kabul, a day after mourning ceremonies were held in outlying provinces.

"He was a personality who spent most of his life fighting for the freedom of Afghanistan," Karzai told the conference attended by senior Ministers.

"He lost his wife and his son in the way of freedom for his country."

Haq's wife and child were killed by unknown attackers in their home in the Pakistan frontier town of Peshawar during the Taliban regime.

"When I was told that Abdul Haq had been killed, at that moment I thought about his death and knew he would not have felt fear even with a Kalashnikov to his head because he was doing something for his country," Karzai said.

Haq, whose heroic status in Afghanistan is second only to slain anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masood, was killed on October 26 last year.

He had been on a mission to muster support among Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group and the Taliban's main power base, for an alternative multi-ethnic government under the banner of ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah.

But his lightly armed group was discovered and surrounded by Taliban troops. U.S. air support failed to help him escape and he was executed near Kabul.

Zahir Shah, who returned to Afghanistan Saturday after a medical trip to France, also paid tribute to Haq.

"I'm sure that patriotic Afghans will remember this young mujahed (holy warrior) and he will be preserved in Afghanistan's history," he said, according to newspaper reports.

"In the period of jihad [holy struggle] and resistance, Abdul Haq was one of the brilliant commanders of Afghanistan who resisted against the foreign invaders in the country. It is a pity that before the victory and rescue of Afghanistan, Abdul Haq was killed by its enemies."

Born to a wealthy Pashtun family in 1958, Haq became politically and militarily active as a teenager opposing the Soviet-backed government of President Mohammad Daoud.

He was a supporter of Zahir Shah, whose reign ended in a Daoud-led coup in 1973.