KABUL, October 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States has partially withdrawn crucial reconstruction aid to Afghanistan in an effort to force regional warlords to end disputes which threaten the country's stability, U.S. officials said Monday, October 28.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Finn said aid programs around the principal northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif had been suspended because of repeated outbreaks of violence in the area, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We will not be able to institute any more programs of assistance in the Mazar-i-Sharif area because of the continuing inability of leaders in that area to provide a security situation that we felt we could say to U.S. citizens, 'Yes, you can go and work there'," Finn told reporters.

"Sadly that situation has not improved."

His comments came a day after Finn and U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad traveled to the city for talks with rival warlords Abdul Rashid Dostam and Atta Mohammad, who jointly control the country's strategic northern zone.

Although Dostam and Mohammad claim to enjoy cordial relations, troops under their command have continued to clash, straining their uneasy alliance and taking the region to the brink of open conflict.

At least six people were killed in the latest bout of fighting just 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Mazar, the stronghold of Mohammad.

Despite the uneasy security situation, Khalilzad said both regional leaders pledged to crush the violence and throw their weight behind the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

On Sunday, October 27, Dostam and Mohammad met face to face, according to local leaders, as international observers urged them to defuse tensions which have taken the region to the brink of open conflict.

Dostam and Mohammad held talks in the principal northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, officials from both sides told AFP.

The meeting, said to have been attended by Khalilzad and American Embassy officials, came as fighting between troops from the two factions continued around the city.

"The northern zone shura (council) was held this afternoon with the presence of Mr. Khalilzad, for discussions on reconstruction and returning refugees," said General Majid Roozi, Dostam's deputy.

"Unfortunately, yes, there are reports of fighting having resumed in a number of areas where it has been stopped in the recent past," UN spokesman Manoel e Almeida da Silva told reporters earlier.

"The security commission has not succeeded in stopping them and, as they have been before, they are working hard to get Dostam and Mohammad to meet.

"We want this meeting because they are the two very key actors in the north that can, through agreement, produce an end to this situation."

However, according to Abdul Saboor, a leading commander of Mohammad's forces, shortly before the meeting took place Dostam's men were advancing on positions just an hour's drive away from Mazar.

"Last night in Rahmat Abad village in the Sholgara district near Mazar, Dostam's commander Haji Habib attacked our forces. We retreated allowing them to capture our territorial posts," he said.

The fighting is the latest outbreak in a series of clashes between supporters of Dostam, the deputy Defense Minister, and Mohammad, a commander in the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance which forms the government's backbone.

Although both warlords share control of a large area of northern Afghanistan, the skirmishes, largely blamed on renegade local commanders, have put their relationship under strain.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday it was beginning to register large numbers of people fleeing fighting in the north at refugee camps near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Earlier this week, Karzai issued his strongest-ever rebuke to warlords, warning those who failed to fall into line would be stripped of their power.