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The United States on Friday ordered a further reduction of American Embassy staff in strife-torn South Sudan and said it would cease to provide consular services for its citizens as of Saturday, apparently reflecting a somber assessment of the country's prospects even as African diplomats sought to convene peace talks.

A travel advisory on the website of the State Department said that Washington "ordered a further drawdown of U.S. Embassy personnel because of the deteriorating security situation" in South Sudan, which has been seized with conflict between its main political factions since December.

"We continue to urge U.S. citizens in South Sudan to depart the country," the message said, offering an evacuation flight on Friday "to the nearest safe haven country" on a "first-come, first-served basis."

"The U.S. Embassy will no longer be able to provide any consular services to U.S. citizens in the Republic of South Sudan as of January 4, 2014," the message said.

The United States began evacuating American citizens from its embassy in Juba, the capital, and from other parts of the country as the fighting spread in December. Washington sent 45 American soldiers to protect the embassy, and evacuation flights ferried hundreds of embassy personnel, other Americans and some citizens of other countries out of the country.

The travel advisory on Friday did not go into detail about the numbers of American Embassy personnel to be withdrawn from Juba. But the American ambassador, Susan D. Page, told Reuters: "We are not suspending our operations. We are just minimizing our presence."

After three weeks of fighting between forces loyal to the government of President Salva Kiir and rebels aligned with the former vice president, Riek Machar, efforts have been underway for days to convene peace talks in Ethiopia.

The fighting has driven an estimated 180,000 people from their homes, forcing them to seek sanctuary at more than a dozen United Nations compounds across the country.