US envoy Richard Holbrooke called Wednesday for refugees from the combat zone in western Pakistan to be allowed to return home as soon as possible in order to end a "major, major crisis", AFP reported
Holbrooke, the envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, also said US diplomat William Burns handed the Indian government overnight Tuesday a letter from President Barack Obama as both countries consulted on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Holbrooke, briefing reporters on his own trip to Pakistan last week, said the flight of 2.5 million people from northwest Pakistan amounted to the largest such flow in India and Pakistan since the countries split in 1947.
"The highest priority is for these people to return to their homes as soon as possible," the veteran diplomat said. "This is a major, major crisis."
He said the Pakistani military will have to ensure security for the people who have fled the weeks-long offensive against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who had advanced perilously close to the capital Islamabad.
He said the vast majority of the refugees are staying in private homes or schools, and only a minority are in tent cities, but warned the problem will get worse with the rainy season, which would bring the risk of cholera.
Holbrooke said it was Obama's idea to send him to Pakistan to "show American concern and support for the humanitarian crisis enveloping western Pakistan and to offer more support."
In addition to the 110 million dollars in US emergency aid announced last month, Holbrooke recalled he also announced after his arrival in Islamabad a further 200 million dollars in aid that still has to be approved by Congress.
But he warned that similar sums of money were needed for reconstruction.
Holbrooke said that since his last visit to Pakistan weeks ago he also found a "dramatic change in attitude" among the Pakistani government and people, adding he "found a new determination in Islamabad" to defeat the insurgency.
A wave of suicide bombings was turning the people against the insurgents, he said, adding: "This is enraging the population."
Holbrooke also said William Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, delivered a letter from President Barack Obama after arriving in Delhi overnight Tuesday but he declined to divulge its contents.
"This administration believes that what happens in Afghanistan and Pakistan is of vital interest to our national security, and ... that India is a country that we must keep in closest consultation with," Holbrooke said.
He would only say that Burns "is carrying the messages that I would have carried if I had the time to go to Delhi on this trip but I couldn't do it."
Holbrooke added: "We consider India an absolutely critical country in the region. They are vitally effective and we want to work closely with them."
In Delhi, Burns held talks with Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon in the first formal contact between Obama's administration and New Delhi's recently-elected government.
The United States has been encouraging India to restart dialogue with Pakistan, stalled since last November's attacks on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.