UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.S. bombing of Afghanistan is disrupting the planting of crops which normally provide 80 percent of Afghanistan's annual grain harvest, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday.

As a result, Afghanistan's already grave food supply situation will be further aggravated next year, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told reporters.

He said reliable estimates of wheat and barley planting were impossible because U.N. international staff were ordered to leave Afghanistan last month, and there is very little contact with local staff.

"Certainly, where the bombing is going on or where war preparation is going on, there would not be very many (farmers) planting not to talk of those who normally would plant and are rushing to the borders as refugees," Diouf said.

The FAO had forecast the country would produce 2 million tons of cereals.

Based on that expected harvest, the two agencies had estimated that Afghanistan would need 2.2 million tons of imported food for the 12 month period ending in June. The forecast noted mounting evidence of emerging widespread famine conditions.

But with the U.S.-led military campaign coming on top of three consecutive years of drought and severe economic disruptions caused by more than a decade of war, the FAO says the food and crop problems are being exacerbated, and the need for foreign food aid will be greater.

Earlier this month, the two Rome-based U.N. agencies agreed to provide 494,000 tons of food to 6 million vulnerable people inside Afghanistan and 1.5 million refugees over the next six months at a cost of $230 million.

Diouf said FAO has also appealed for $3 million to provide emergency seeds and fertilizer to farmers for the current winter planting.

The agency had been working in seven provinces including Kabul. It is still working in northern areas controlled by the opposition, but is not currently operating in 90 percent of the country controlled by the Taliban religious militia, he said.

In the short term, Diouf said, "it is estimated that we will need $80 million to assist 2 million farm families to continue to produce food for their needs" immediately after military action ends.

For long-term rehabilitation of Afghanistan's devastated agriculture and livestock sector, the FAO is seeking an additional $122 million.