ISLAMABAD -- NGOs have warned against the premature voluntary repatriation of refugees and asylum seekers from European countries back to Afghanistan.

"The conditions are still not conducive enough to promote such repatriation," Noorullah, a senior program officer for the UK based NGO, Islamic relief, said.

"I don't think the situation is so good yet," he said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

His comments follow Tuesday's announcement by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, advising European governments to provide a financial package to Afghan asylum seekers who wish to return to their country.

Just last month the refugee agency had said that without fresh contributions, it would run out of funding by the end of June. At the time UNHCR said it required us $271 million through year-end, but had received only us $180 million, she explained, IRNA reported.

Moreover, in February UNHCR had requested states outside the Afghan region to be cautious about launching voluntary repatriation initiatives, and to refrain from making a final decision when processing asylum claims by Afghans.

However, on Tuesday the agency said in a statement from its head office in Geneva that it was recommending to the governments that the time was ripe for Afghans - wherever they were and at whatever stage they might be in the asylum process - to be offered the option of voluntary repatriation.

At least 150,000 Afghans have sought asylum in European countries in the last three years. According to UNHCR statistics, the number of returns is still averaging about 8,000 people per day from the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran; and more than one-and-a-quarter million Afghans have gone home from neighboring countries since the assisted voluntary return program began on 1 March.

UNHCR spokesman said the agency was urging the governments to offer a generous package, including travel costs to those who wished to go back. He said most returnees would go to urban centers in Afghanistan.

However, Noorullah cited the lack of security outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, the presence of large numbers of internally displaced people who needed to be returned to their homes, the lack of health facilities, water shortages, presence of mines and a whole lot of other factors as reasons for delaying repatriation.

"Even in Kabul, property values are so high that returning Afghans are finding it hard to obtain lodgings," He exclaimed.

UNHCR says that it has reviewed its position following improvements in the situation in Afghanistan over a period of five months.

"Many of the reasons which prompted people to flee only a year ago, under the previous Taleban regime, no longer exist," it said.

"Today, a legitimate government is in place, and there is no longer a civil war raging in the central and northern parts of the country," UNHCR maintained.