KABUL, Feb 29: After four months delay, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Sunday that it would resume its repatriation operation to assist Afghan refugees living in Pakistan to return home.

The UNHCR had suspended its repatriation operation in November 2003, after Bettina Goislard, a French woman working for the UNHCR, was shot dead by two armed men.

"The decision to resume repatriation came after the UNHCR received assurances from the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan that measures have been taken to improve security in the border areas," Mohammad Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the UNHCR, told reporters in Kabul, adding that the operation would start this week.

Since the toppling of the Taliban regime by a US-led military coalition in late 2001, foreign troops and aid workers have frequently come under attack. -DPA