GENEVA -- More than 700,000 people are still displaced within Afghanistan but the UN refugee agency plans to help about 300,000 of them return home this year, the agency said.

"The displacement problem is particularly acute in southern provinces, where an estimated 400,000 people are scattered after leaving their communities due mainly to the severe drought as well as ethnic tension in the north," the UN agency said in a statement, AFP reported.

One problem is to encourage the return of Pashtuns displaced from parts of northern Afghanistan since late 2001 due to their perceived affiliation with the Taleban regime, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The Geneva-based agency said it had helped set up a commission, made up of northern leaders and the Afghan government, to begin dealing with claims of abuses and other disputes.

The UN, together with the Afghan government, is also seeking solutions for nomadic Kuchis who lost their livestock and became dependent on aid, the UNHCR statement said.

In 2002, more than 250,000 internally displaced people went home under a joint UNHCR-Afghan government scheme, and another 200,000 Afghans returned on their own.

In addition, the joint scheme helped more than 1.8 million refugees go home to Afghanistan last year.

"Over 2003, the refugee agency plans to assist 1.2 million refugees and another 300,000 IDPS (internally displaced people) to return to their homes," UNHCR said.

An estimated two million Afghans are still in Iran, and 1.5 million in Pakistan.