The UN has sent the first food shipments to Afghanistan since the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Hours after the UN ordered member states to crack down on terror groups, Pakistani authorities shut down a militant Islamic group.
A spokesman for the World Food Programme, Mr Khaled Mansour, said convoys carrying 200 tons of wheat left the Pakistani border city of Peshawar for the Afghan capital Kabul. Other shipments are due to be dispatched in a few days for Kabul and the western city of Herat.
Mr Mansour said: "We are resuming food deliveries into Afghanistan on a trail basis. Once we ensure that food aid is reaching the most needy ... we will move more food into Afghanistan."
Humanitarian groups have been warning of impending starvation inside Afghanistan because of political turmoil, drought and the threat of American attack.
The Taliban is sheltering Mr Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September 11th suicide hijackings which destroyed the World Trade Centre and damaged part of the Pentagon.
The UN and international relief organisations evacuated their foreign staff from Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks, leaving local Afghan staff to tend to an estimated five million people who rely on outside aid for survival.
Last week, the UN said its offices in the southern city of Kandahar were shut down and occupied by the Taliban - and that most of its staff have been prohibited from using satellite phones, cutting off communication with the outside world.
The UN decision to resume shipments comes as hopes for peacefully resolving the standoff between the US and the Taliban are fading. The Taliban has refused to hand over bin Laden and his chief lieutenants of al-Qaida, an extremist group planning a worldwide Islamic uprising.
PA