British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, today called for an international humanitarian coalition to cope with the looming refugee crisis in Afghanistan.
After a meeting with representatives of Britain’s Muslim communities at Downing Street, Mr Blair said he had agreed with the United Nations to put together a concerted aid programme in the region.
The agreement was struck between Mr Blair, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the head of the UN High Commission for Refugees Mr Ruud Lubbers.
He said: "Just as we have built a political and military coalition following the events in America, now we have also to build a humanitarian coalition to deal with humanitarian crisis in that region."
Mr Blair said he would be having further discussions with EU external affairs commissioner Mr Chris Patten and Japanese prime minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi about measures to cope with the refugee influx.
"I will be stressing throughout the importance of a massive assistance programme going hand in hand with diplomatic and military options," he said.
He also urged people to go about their daily lives as normal and not allow them to be disrupted by concerns over the September 11th terrorist attacks in America.
"These are immensely difficult times. We are engaged in a fight against terrorism on all fronts," he said.
"We will be vigilant but we must not let these events shake our confidence in ourselves, in our country and in our way of life."
Mr Blair took the opportunity to stress Christianity, Islam and other religions tended to share the same values, and repeated there would be no tolerance for those who used the recent events as a convenient cover for racism.
Mr Blair was speaking ahead of a special meeting of the British cabinet where ministers are expected to be briefed on military, legal and humanitarian options.
PA