Brahimi wraps up trip to Islamabad and heads to Tehran for talks on Afghanistan

After holding talks with senior Pakistani officials in Islamabad, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, headed for Tehran today to continue his consultations.

Mr. Brahimi, who will make a brief stopover in Dubai, was expected to arrive in Iran on Saturday.

A United Nations spokesman said the envoy, who is based in New York, has two deputies in the region - one dealing with political issues and one with humanitarian matters. Mr. Brahimi "will be commuting between New York, the region and other capitals of countries in the world that can have influence, that are interested in solving this issue of Afghanistan," spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters in New York.

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that while it is "nearly impossible" to collect firm statistics on the number of Afghans who have fled their homes, the agency estimates that 100,000 have entered Pakistan since 11 September.

Despite the fact that Afghanistan's neighbours disagree on the fundamental question of open borders, UNHCR will try to work together with those States to ensure that the most vulnerable persons can receive temporary protection and assistance. This would mean, for example, that women, children, elderly, the sick and wounded would be cared for in Pakistan.

In another development, reports from Kandahar "suggest that most UN offices are now under the control of the Taliban or those aligned with the Taliban," spokesperson Stephanie Bunker told reporters in Islamabad. "Most of the buildings continue to fly the UN flag. Most UN vehicles also continue to be used by military elements," she added.

The World Food Programme (WFP) today reported that in Afghanistan's impoverished North Eastern region the agency is facing major challenges. "In this historically poor and food insecure area, the skyrocketing fuel prices in the past couple of weeks had brought the food aid deliveries from WFP down to a trickle," said agency spokesman Khaled Mansour.

WFP is also concerned that a large part of the region will be "cut off by snow and totally inaccessible by road" as winter sets in this month. "If we become unable to truck in all the winter needs before the snow cuts off these needy people, WFP will use whatever it takes to get the food in," Mr. Mansour said.