A direct-write laser system and an atomic force microscope(AFM) are combined to modify thin layers of aluminum on an oxidizedsilicon substrate, in order to fabricate conducting and robust etch masks with submicron features. These masks are very well suited for the production of nanoelectromechanical systems(NEMS) by reactive ion etching. In particular, the laser-modified areas can be subsequently locally oxidized by AFM and the oxidized regions can be selectively removed by chemical etching. This provides a straightforward means to define the overall conducting structure of a device by laser writing, and to perform submicron modifications by AFMoxidation. The mask fabrication for a nanoscale suspended resonator bridge is used to illustrate the advantages of this combined technique for NEMS.