The United Nations says it believes that its efforts to supply food to a region of central Afghanistan has suceeded in averting any threat of a major disaster. One of the UN's agencies, the World Food Programme, has supplied thousands of tons of potatoes and wheat to the area where it was claimed that up to 160,000 people might be at risk of famine. Acute food shortages in the very remote and mountainous Hazarajat region was partly the result of a blockade the the Taleban movement. The blockade was imposed because Hazarajat is controlled by forces which opposed the Taleban in the Afghan civil war. Our Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston sent this report:

About two months ago the World Food Programme began a major effort to counterthe looming crisis in Hazarajat. The WFP bought potatoes in two parts of the region where they were plentiful.

Lorries then took these stocks through the mountains to outlying areas where the UN claimed that many tens of thousands of people would be at risk of famine later in the winter. The WFP says that more than five thousand tons of potatoes and wheat supplies have now been delivered to the worst affected areas.

A spokesman said that the bulk of the supply task had been completed and that he believed that the threat of a major disaster had been averted. He added, though, that much remains to be done and the relief operation is continuing.

Heavy snow in the mountains, however, has made some areas extremely difficult to reach and it will be impossible for the WFP to complete its emergency programme. It expects to fall at least a thousand tons short of its original food delivery target.

But over the past two months the WFP has spent 1.5 million dollars in Hazarajat. This major economic boost to what is a poverty-striken region should in itself make it easier for people to find ways of weathering the food shortages.