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QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct 31 (AFP) - Pakistan authorities Wednesday suspended a humantiarian operation aimed at rescuing the neediest of Afghan refugees which allowed the sick, injured and hungry to flee US bombardments.

United Nations High commission for Refugees spokesman Yusuf Hassan said the order to halt processing and registration was given after a temporary camp near the Chaman border post exceeded its capacity.

"They were told to go back to Spin Boldak," he said, referring to hundreds of refugees, mostly women and children, who were told to return to the nearest Afghan town across the border.

Pakistan had agreed to allow the most desperate of Afghan refugees into the country with some 500 women and children crossing the border on Tuesday and more than 500 crossed on Wednesday.

The refugees were to be housed at a temporary site at Killi Faizo, outside the frontier town of Chaman, some 160 kilometeres (100 miles) northwest of here, before being sent to permanent sites.

However, Hassan said the camp had already exceeded capacity of 325 families.

At least 80,000 Afghan refugees have crossed the border illegally since the September 11 destruction in New York and Washington prompted US reprisals against Afghanistan's Taliban and alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Most were absorbed into local communities.

The Pakistan border has remained officially closed to refugees but the worst cases, often malnourished women and children, had been allowed to cross.

"All we have is the sign board saying don't come in, in three languages. We are disappointed and sorry for the people out there but hopefully this will be a temporary thing and we can resume the process," Hassan said.

He also said UNHCR offices in Spin Boldak, which sits about one kilometre (half a mile) across the border, had been seized by armed Taliban guards earlier on Wednesday.

"We were told about 10.00am this morning that armed Taliban men came in and took it over ... it is occupied by the Taliban," he said.

The UNHCR building housed a field office that provided food and shelter for Afghan refugees who were being repatriated from Pakistan.

The seizure follows a similar storming of UNHCR offices in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar almost a week ago where all UN vehicles and equipment were taken over.

"It is going to make our work very very difficult," Hassan said.

Asked whether the Taliban were using UN offices to hide from US bombardments that have continued since October 7, he said: "I don't have any information about their intentions."

Chaman has witnessed volatile scenes with Afghans pelting border guards with rocks, and in overwhelming numbers forcing their way into Pakistan.

Another UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler, said Killi Faizo had about 2,000 refugees, some of whom were badly malnourished, injured by US bombing or traumatised.

"The people there are increasingly in a vulnerable condition. Some of them, particularly the child.

Kessler said it was not known if the man at Killi Faizo was referring to the same attack.

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