Holbrooke wants more EU support for Swat refugees

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomes U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke (R) before their meeting at the EU Council in Brussels, July 28, 2009.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union should provide more humanitarian assistance to refugees who have fled fighting between Pakistan's military and Taliban militants, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Tuesday.

The European Commission said last month it would provide 20 million euros ($27.7 million) to help people from the Swat valley combat zone and ask EU states to provide a further 45 million euros from a reserve fund.

The Commission said that in the past six months, it and EU member states had provided a combined total of $263 million in humanitarian aid and would consider providing more as needed in cooperation with humanitarian agencies.

But Richard Holbrooke, who has just visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters after talks with EU and NATO officials in Brussels: "The EU membership countries should in my view do more to help Pakistan with this enormous refugee crisis.

"I would like to see more support from the EU. The United States has given for the refugees alone $330 million. The EU, I hope, would step up to the plate and do an equal amount or more," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the combat zone since fighting began in late April. Holbrooke said the crisis was in a region containing al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

"This is more than a humanitarian crisis," he said. "This is a strategic issue as well, because those refugees are in the exact area where al Qaeda and the Taliban are and it's right up against the Afghan border."

Holbrooke reiterated U.S. frustration with the unwillingness of some EU countries to do more in Afghanistan as part of a coalition of more than 40 states.

But he added: "We are not here in this administration ... going to repeat the fruitless, unproductive drama of coming to this city every year and banging on about issues or restrictions and troop levels.

"We hope that the amount of support will increase as time goes forward because we are all in this together and every country represented in the coalition is a potential target, not the least of which is the city that houses the NATO headquarters," he said in reference to the Belgian capital.

The 27-country EU and the United States want to boost ties with nuclear-armed Pakistan because of concern about the spread of Islamic militancy there and fears that nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of militants.