A Red Cross report released on Thursday criticised Western governments for focusing humanitarian assistance on Iraq and countries associated with the 'war on terrorism' at the cost of other crises, but aid workers in Afghanistan warned that even the benefits of this international attention can be short-lived. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' "World Disasters Report 2003" said that humanitarian intervention was increasingly driven by political priorities and less according to need. This leads, the document said, to disproportionate amounts of money temporarily pouring into countries where Western governments have been involved in conflict, such as Afghanistan. "While countries targeted in the 'war on terror' have attracted unprecedented levels of humanitarian and reconstruction aid, other - arguably more pressing - crises languish in the shadows," the report states. Although aid agencies in Afghanistan arguably benefited more from the world's attention after 9/11 [the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York] than in other countries, donations and interest have since slowed, humanitarian workers say. "I don't know if it's ignorance or the political agenda, but clearly there's much less funding for Afghanistan than before," Sally Austin, Care International's Assistant Country Director for Afghanistan, told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul. [CRIN] [For the full story, go to: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35453&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]