The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is plunging into a crisis of "stunning proportions", with one and a half million refugees ready to flee the country.
The organisation also accused the ruling Taliban of trying to cripple UN humanitarian relief operations in the country, shutting down a key office in the south of Afghanistan.
The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights spokesman, Mr Yousuf Hassan, said nearly a million refugees could arrive in Pakistan and nearly half a million in Iran in the event of a US attack on Afghanistan.
He said plans were under way in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to accommodate a further 150,000 refugees.
"The UNHCR is planning for an expected 1.5 million Afghans fleeing into neighbouring countries," he said.
The agency said tens of thousands of Afghans were already on the move inside Afghanistan to try to avoid threatened US strikes against Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors.
Already, thousands of Afghan refugees are waiting at two border points, Chaman in the south and Torkham in the north, to get into Pakistan. There were reports yesterday that the border at Chaman is to be opened by the authorities.
In a joint statement yesterday, six UN agencies said more than five million of Afghanistan's 26 million people are now dependent on international aid for survival.
"We urge a world wounded by the horrific and deplorable terrorist attacks of September 11th to be mindful of the principles of international humanitarian law and to take all measures to protect the civilian populations, especially the millions of women and children," the statement said.
The plea was issued after the Taliban shut down the UN communications network in Afghanistan and took over the organisation's office in Kandahar, seizing 1,400 tonnes of food aid in the process.
Most expatriate aid agency workers left Afghanistan last week for security reasons. But agencies like Concern are still operating food distribution using local staff.
The World Food Programme, which says there are only two weeks' supplies left, resumed food aid shipments despite fears that they might end up in Taliban hands. "This will mark the first effort to deliver relief supplies into Afghanistan since the crisis began," a programme spokesman said. About 30 NGOs had been pressing the WFP to end the ban and rush in tonnes of wheat immediately.
The programme has decided to restart its food shipments to the worst hit areas in northwest and northeast Afghanistan, where security remains relatively stable, local transport is available and NGOs are present on the ground to oversee distribution.
However, using existing stocks inside Afghanistan, the WFP has in fact continued to feed up to a million people it has been able to access since international staff were withdrawn from September 12th.
Without additional aid, the programme estimates, some 1.6 million Afghans in the northern provinces will run out of food by December.
The WFP's sister agency, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, is pressing ahead with its seed distribution and livestock vaccination programme in Afghanistan despite difficult conditions, officials said.
It said local staff were continuing to aid farmers in northern, western and central areas, even though radio links had been shut down by the Taliban.
"Local staff have to look out for their own safety first," said one official. "If they can do that and distribute seeds safely, they can continue to work."
Yesterday the European Commission pledged urgent humanitarian aid worth four million euros to Afghan refugees.
The Commission said the money would be channelled to refugees through the UN agencies and the International Committee for the Red Cross.
"We have a humanitarian obligation to continue support for the civilian population in Afghanistan and refugees in the region," Mr Romano Prodi, the Commission President, said.
Meanwhile Amnesty International warned that genuine refugees seeking asylum in the European Union could suffer as a result of tighter security measures imposed after the attacks on the United States.
Increased border controls designed to keep out potential terrorists may also deny refugees access to EU countries which they need to file their asylum applications, Amnesty said.
"This crisis and the need for more security will make it easier to be more restrictive," according to the Amnesty Director, Mr Dick Oosting.
The Pakistani authorities have said they will open the border to allow a certain number of refugees through but they have not said precisely how many.