The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, has said the mandate of the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, should be expanded to include people displaced by wars within their own countries but who do not have refugee status.

He said they were victims just as much as refugees who cross international borders.

Mr Holbrooke -- current president of the Security Council -- was addressing a debate on refugees in Africa as part of a Security Council programme for January he has termed The Month of Africa.

The head of the UNHCR, Sadako Ogata, said she was not sure the organisation could deal with an estimated twenty five million displaced people -- half of them in Africa -- in addition to eleven million official refugees worldwide.

She said the Security Council and African nations had to act to prevent the wars which displaced people in the first place.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service