The United States said it would respond generously to a new UN appeal launched today for $584 million to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan even as it weighs military reprisals there for this month's terrorist attacks.
"We know that Afghanistan already is facing a humanitarian crisis," State Department spokesman Mr Richard Boucher said.
"Winter is coming on, food distribution systems have broken down, sometimes because of the actions of the government and we're looking at possible refugee needs as we go forward," he said.
US officials attending a hastily-arranged donors conference in Berlin today were formulating the exact outlines of Washington's contribution and Boucher said a decision on it would likely be announced next week in Geneva at a committee meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The money is needed to help an estimated 7.5 million Afghans survive from October to March next year amid the likely of aid programs resulting from the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Mr Boucher noted the United States was already the leading contributor to relief efforts in Afghanistan despite its threat to retaliate against the country's ruling Taliban militia.
The Taliban have refused to turn over their "guest," Osama bin Laden, seen by Washington as the prime suspect in the attacks.
AFP