December 8, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 22, 1422

WASHINGTON, Dec 7: The United States said on Thursday the rest of the world should pay “the bulk” of the billions of dollars needed to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan, but promised it would not leave Afghans snared by a refugee crisis “in the lurch.”

The US special coordinator for Afghanistan, Richard Haass, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration was wary of getting involved in “intrusive nation building that would be resented by Afghans.”

“We should not get involved in activities to the exclusion of other countries in the international community, for example the reconstruction effort which should not be a mostly US effort,” he said.

“There is every good reason in the world why the bulk of the resources ought to come from other countries.”

Haass said that the United States had done the “lion’s share of the work” in the first stage of the campaign, by defeating the Taliban and targeting terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

He also expressed skepticism over estimates by some United Nations and NGO officials circulating widely here that 10 billion dollars or more must be made immediately available for Afghanistan’s reconstruction drive.

“People are throwing around a lot of numbers. I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in that, until you do a serious needs assessment ... I don’t think the numbers are terribly meaningful or specific.”

While conceding that a large amount of money was needed over multiple years, Haas said “the United States will do its share ... we are not yet at the point yet when we can say this many dollars in this package of legislation.”

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca also testified at the hearing, and promised the United States would play a major role in rebuilding.

“Our message to the Afghan people is that we will not leave them in the lurch,” she said, pointing out that the United States was already the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.—AFP