TASHKENT: Uzbekistan has sent technicians to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan to repair its airport equipment and help it restart operations, the Tashkent government said on Friday.

The move reflects the readiness among Afghanistan's northern neighbours to build ties with the new Taliban government after the movement's rapid takeover of the country as US and allied forces withdrew this year.

The Uzbek presidential special envoy on Afghanistan, Ismatilla Ergashev, who visited the northern Afghan province of Balkh last month, said on Friday that the technicians planned to complete their work on the airport by early next year.

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Uzbekistan has also helped the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees set up a humanitarian aid hub in a logistics centre in the southern Uzbek border city of Termez.

The UN agency has delivered 100 tonnes of supplies such as kitchen sets and plastic sheets to the hub, 40 tonnes of which were trucked to Afghanistan this week, officials said.