Urgent action needed to avoid humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, says Oxfam

Urgent action is needed to avert humanitarian disaster in Aghanistan where millions face "severe hardship comparable with sub-Saharan Africa," the international aid agency Oxfam said.

A report by the Britain-based agency said U.S. spending on aid in the country was only a fraction of its military expenditure there, and too much of the aid money goes on high salaries.

Although the U.S. Agency for International Development has spent more than US$4.4 billion (€3 billion) in Afghanistan since 2002, Oxfam said that figure is dwarfed by U.S. military spending here — US$35 billion (€23.88 billion) in 2007 alone.

"As in Iraq, too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, on non-Afghan resources and on high expatriate salaries and living costs," said the report Tuesday prepared for a British parliament committee. "Each full-time expatriate consultant costs up to half a million dollars a year."

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it could not immediately comment.