KABUL, Nov 18: The Northern Alliance is refusing to let aid workers return to Afghanistan to prepare relief efforts for the onslaught of winter, the United Nations said on Sunday.

The United Nations, racing to try to fill a political void left by the virtual collapse of the Taliban, has brought 30 international staff back to Afghanistan to step up humanitarian efforts, spokesman Eric Falt told a news conference.

But Falt said the Northern Alliance, which swept into Kabul early on Tuesday, had not yet given permission for non-governmental organisation (NGO) aid workers to fly into Bagram airbase near the capital and resume their operations.

“The U.N. works very closely with NGO partners but many are reporting that they cannot get to their locations,” Falt said. “It is important they are deployed as soon as possible.”

Relief organisations need to make preparations before bad weather hampers distribution of food and supplies to millions of Afghans hungry and homeless after 23 years of civil war.

“Obviously our immediate priority is to get through the bitter Afghan winter which is now upon us,” said Mike Sackett, in charge of the U.N.’s humanitarian operations in Afghanistan.—Reuters