The latest Crisis in Afghanistan illustrates the problem.

The debate has made clear that the Afghanistan Crisis has for many cast a different light on relations with the Soviet Union.

Sir Frederic Bennett asked the Lord Privy Seal what is his policy towards the organisation of an international conference on the Afghanistan Crisis.

Moreover, as we know from President Carter's grain embargo following the Afghanistan Crisis, alternative suppliers from the West, notably from Argentina, are only too happy to step in.

At the time of the Afghanistan Crisis during the Christmas period in 1979, a certain number of people were made to take their holiday on pain of losing their jobs.

With respect to sanctions, I do not accept the argument that sanctions have caused the Crisis in Afghanistan.

She will be aware that we are constantly engaged in discussions with the countries surrounding Afghanistan, including Pakistan, in order to try to achieve a peaceful resolution to the Crisis in Afghanistan.

The aid agencies tell us that the only effective way to address the unfolding humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan, with its hilly terrain, is to bring in necessary food and non-food items by road, and to administer that using people familiar with local needs, conditions and customs.

Following that point with the Prime Minister, is not it also correct that ending the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan is clearly linked to the same military success?

The international community has been trying to deal with the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan for years.

We cannot resolve the humanitarian and political Crisis in Afghanistan without attention to the regional context.

I assure my right hon. Friend that there is a tremendous fund of good will, nationally and internationally, behind her efforts to tackle the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

It is not true to suggest that there was not a terrible humanitarian and political Crisis in Afghanistan before11 September.

But I do not believe that should stop us from voicing the gravest disquiet, as the noble Lord, Lord Bach, has done, about the growing humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

They are not a reward for the position taken on Afghanistan, but there is a danger that Pakistan could be destabilised by the Crisis in Afghanistan.

The sum of $700 million was pledged by the international community and international institutions to meet the challenges of the Crisis in Afghanistan.

Although the first stage of the Crisis in Afghanistan may perhaps be ending successfully, our duty to unpick legislation, ask the simple questions "Why"?

If there were no Crisis in Afghanistan, the seriousness of the situation in Zimbabwe would put it on the front page of our newspapers virtually every day and give it a far higher profile.

Once the Crisis in Afghanistan is over, it will be indefensible for the people of Pakistan to be abandoned, as they have been before, by the richer members of the coalition.

Since last September, a team of four people has been working full-time on the Afghanistan Crisis supplemented by technical and project administrative support in the region.

Clare Short: On 19 September 2001 I announced £25 million to help meet the immediate humanitarian needs in response to the Afghanistan Crisis.

The Department for International Development has committed £11 million to Pakistan to help with the short-term humanitarian and broader economic impact of the Afghanistan Crisis.

I begin with the most fundamental point, which is raised in the characteristically excellent report of the Select Committee on International Development: the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan began long before 11 September.

However, we should never underestimate the cost of the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

I ask the hon. Lady to bring her remarks more closely to the debate on the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

I ask the hon. Lady and other hon. Members to stick to the issue for debate, which is the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

I remind the hon. Gentleman that we are debating the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan, not the deployment of troops around the world.

I begin with the most fundamental point, which is raised in the characteristically excellent report of the Select Committee on International Development: the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan began long before11 September.

If we are to resolve the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan, it is important that we direct our efforts to that country and not towards any other axis that may be on someone else's mind.

It is in all our interests that the Crisis in Afghanistan is resolved, and resolved quickly.

In any event, the Government have demonstrated, with the recent Crisis in Afghanistan, a willingness, enthusiasm and keenness to hear from the House.

In addition, the £60 million that we have disbursed in response to the Crisis in Afghanistan since September 2001 includes a number of regional grants to humanitarian agencies.

That put me in mind of what was said in the first report from the Select Committee this Session about the humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Crisis dominated the political agenda, but people in the UN were following a parallel agenda, considering world poverty, AIDS, climate change and globalisation.

There is a serious Crisis in Afghanistan, and this debate is about trying to find ways to resolve the problems.

How will we respond with financial resources or manpower to the demand to help tackle the looming greater Crisis in Afghanistan?

The political machinery must be found-perhaps in a much-needed war Cabinet while the Crisis in Afghanistan lasts and before a review takes place-to curb the Treasury in its insistence on its pound of flesh as regards defence overspend.

My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that, while the Crisis in Afghanistan continues-it is a crisis, whichever way you look at it-the Ministry of Defence is having its hands tied behind its back by the significant sums that are being withdrawn from it on the basis of an overspend that has been brought about only by having to buy the emergency equipment that is so badly needed at the front?

It is not unpatriotic to seek to recognise that there is no military solution to the Crisis in Afghanistan and to bring our troops home safely.