Kabul, Afghanistan ? A delegation from an eastern town plagued by factional fighting traveled to the capital on Friday for talks on resolving the dispute that threatens to undermine the interim government’s influence.

Meanwhile, a commander for the new security force in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said all militia factions have complied with a Friday deadline to withdraw forces to their barracks outside the city.

“The city is in complete control of the security forces,” said the commander, Showali, who goes by one name as do many Afghans.

The move was seen as an important step in shoring up the authority of the new central government in the north, where ethnic-based militias wield considerable power.

Gardez was the scene of the most serious factional fighting in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, with more than 60 people killed in a two-day battle last week. The fighting broke out after warlord Bacha Khan sought to take the governorship of Paktia province.

Khan was appointed by the government of interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, but is opposed by the local shura, or council, members, who claim he is unscrupulous and bloodthirsty.

There were no details on whom the delegation planned to meet with in Kabul, said Safiullah, the son of the shura leader. Safiullah, who uses one name, said the shura side intended to continue observing a cease-fire.

Safiullah said he would take part in the talks and representatives of Bacha Khan said the warlord would also participate.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, more than half of the 600-member security force under the direction of the interim government has been selected and is on patrol. Force leader Gen. Mohammad Isa Eftakhouri said they should be at full strength in the next week.

He said the next step would be to disarm civilian gunmen. Nearly every home in northern Afghanistan has some weapons and Eftakhouri said getting rid of them is critical.

“We hope this will be the first of many cities in the north to push out the militias and come under the control of security forces aligned with the central government,” Showali said. “The people want peace.”

Snow in the capital of Kabul delayed Karzai from beginning a planned two-day visit to neighboring Pakistan, although he was able to leave later in the day. One of the top issues of the visit was expected to be the status of Pakistanis imprisoned in Afghanistan, Pakistani newspapers said Friday.

Pakistan was one of only three countries to give diplomatic recognition to the Taliban during the years it ruled most of Afghanistan and many Afghanis deeply resent the participation of Pakistanis on the side of Taliban fighters.

Significant snowfalls have hit much of Afghanistan over the past week, precipitation that is much needed in the drought-plagued country but that creates serious problems on the roads.

The bad weather hampered efforts to learn details of a U.S. missile strike in eastern Afghanistan that may have dealt a blow to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Wazir Khan, a top figure in one of the factions in Paktia province, said the missile fired Monday by a CIA-operated drone aircraft killed seven suspected al-Qaida members. A U.S. official acknowledged the attack but said it was uncertain whether it killed any leaders of the terrorist network.

Khan said Thursday that authorities wanted to send a delegation to the site, but were blocked by the weather.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, said the missile hit its intended target, but he said bad weather in the Zawar Khili area made it difficult to verify who was killed. He said ground forces may be dispatched to investigate.

International teams on Thursday rescued about 500 people trapped by an avalanche of snow. The avalanche roared down the Hindu Kush mountains the day before and blocked the Salang Tunnel, the world’s highest at some 11,000 feet above sea level and the main route between Kabul and Afghanistan’s north.

Three people suffocated inside the tunnel and a fourth died while trapped in a car outside, said U.N. spokesman Yusuf Hassan.

The U.N. health agency, meanwhile, said it planned to fly in emergency medical supplies, probably over the weekend, to Afghans cut off by heavy snow in the Ghor province in west central Afghanistan.

“Thousands of people are cut off in their villages without any access to doctors,” said Valery Abramov, spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Also Thursday, the White House said President Bush has determined that the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict in Afghanistan and to Taliban soldiers, but not al-Qaida fighters and other terrorists. The decision has significant legal implications for the 186 detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

The Bush administration has said the Guantanamo Bay detainees are being treated humanely regardless of their legal designation. Bush does not consider the detainees prisoners of war, but still believes the Geneva Convention applies to some of them, U.S. officials said.