PERTH, Oct 29: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday urged the world community to help Pakistan repatriate three million Afghan refugees, stop illegal cross-border movement and prevent spread of the crippling polio disease.

“They need to go back... the relief centres have to be in Afghanistan,” he said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Australian prime minister had invited a select group of heads of state and government from the countries where polio was still prevalent or who were funding campaigns for its eradication. Commonwealth leaders vowed to step up the fight against polio, but said the Afghanistan war was hindering the fight and warned that without total eradication there could be a resurgence of the crippling disease.

Polio remains in just four countries: Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Nigeria — all members of the Commonwealth.

Leaders from Britain, Canada, Australia and Nigeria, and US billionaire Bill Gates pledged tens of millions of dollars in extra funding to wipe out the disease.

Prime Minister Gilani said the world appeared to have forgotten the plight of millions of Afghans who were living in shanty makeshift homes and camps in Pakistan, years after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan as decades of continuing conflict in their country had deterred them from returning. He said it was difficult for Pakistan to check the illegal movement across the 2000km border with Afghanistan.

Mr Gilani attributed the resurfacing of polio to the cross-border movement and difficulties in administrating polio drops to the children living in camps and villages in the inhospitable terrain along the Pak-Afghan border. Over 40,000 people cross the border daily.

He alleged that extremist elements in these areas were preventing administration of the vaccine, adding that his government was seeking help of religious scholars to convince the “fanatics” about the importance of vaccine.

He said Pakistan had managed to curb polio, but regretted that it resurfaced over the past seven years and 132 new cases had been reported. “This situation is totally unacceptable. We have launched a national emergency action plan for polio eradication to interrupt transmission of the virus by the end of this year.”

Mr Gilani said Pakistan was launching a three-day campaign every three months to administer anti-polio drops to 33 million children across the country. A polio monitoring cell has been set up at the PM Secretariat, with similar cells at provincial, district and local levels working to mobilise the parents.

He said the campaign was being carried out in coordination with Unicef and WHO. “We hope to see a positive outcome by December this year.”

The Australian government announced a commitment of 53 million dollars to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

The Nigerian government pledged an increase in the planned $17 million to an annual contribution of $30 million starting next year. The Gates Foundation pledged an additional $40 million to the GPEI.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the United Kingdom had so far provided 540 million pounds sterling to fight the crippling disease, adding that eight million people today were able to walk around without any problem only because they got the vaccine on time.

“With the availability of the vaccine, there is no excuse in eliminating it,” he said and warned: “If we fail to get rid of polio, we run the risk of seeing it spread back to countries from which it has been eradicated.”

Mr Cameron said Pakistan was the single largest aid recipient of the UK and the United States government was working closely with it and Afghanistan to stop terrorists on either side of the Pak-Afghan border.

Australian Prime Minister Gillard said her government had a long-term commitment in Afghanistan and would stay there in some form till the end of the decade because it did not want the country become a centre of terrorism.

She said the new funding of 53 million dollars to the GPEI would help purchase vaccines, monitor outbreaks and respond when and where needed. She said Australia’s support would help take the final steps to achieve worldwide polio eradication and praised Pakistan, India and Nigeria for their efforts to eradicate the disease.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his country would commit further funds for polio surveillance and immunisation, adding that its funding in Afghanistan had helped make 85 per cent population safe from polio.

Bill Gates joined the leaders via video to announce a new $40 million contribution to the GPEI on behalf of the Gates Foundation and in support of the Commonwealth commitments.

Significant progress has been made over the past two decades to reduce the number of polio cases by 99 per cent since the GPEI was launched in 1988. Increasing routine immunisation around the world has helped reduce the number of child deaths from 12.4 million in 1990 to 7.6 million this year.—Agencies