Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, the international development secretary, Clare Short, has told the Labour Party conference.

Short, who has expressed reservations about the planned counter strikes against Afghanistan, said the west must deliver a humanitarian solution to the current crisis.

"The catastrophe in America displayed a more vicious, far-reaching and gloabised organisation of terrorism that the world has ever seen," she said. "We are all agreed that we need strong international cooperation to bring to justice those who planned and organised this outrage.

"But we must work with equal determination to bring humanitarian relief to the Afghan people who have suffered 20 years of war and four years of drought and are on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe."

Speaking just days before the US-led coalition against terror is expected to mount a concerted attack on Afghanistan's Taleban regime, Short warned that the west must tackle the root causes of global violence.

"Our immediate focus is obviously on the humanitarian, military and diplomatic challenges that confront us. But we need to do more, much more, to reduce the risks of violence and marginalise the forces of extremism that multiply in conditions of poverty and injustice."

Short said that Britain and its allies must launch an international effort to reduce poverty and injustice and promote "development, democracy and human rights". "There can be no global stability without global social justice," she said.

Her concerns were amplified by the former Labour MP Tony Benn who told the conference that the Labour government had to be a force for peace in the world.

In what he said was his last address to a Labour conference, Benn said the coalition against terror must proceed within the framework of the United Nations.

"Any military action must be sanctioned by the security council," he told delegates who rose with a standing ovation to his call for a calm response to the September 11 attacks on the US.