GENEVA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The head of the UN refugee agency said Monday that the organisation would likely spend 500 million dollars (370 million euros) more this year than in 2006 as it tackles growing problems worldwide.

'We estimate that in 2008 our global expenditure will increase to 1.6 billion dollars, compared to 1.1 billion dollars in 2006,' UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told an executive committee meeting here.

Faced with a growing refugee problem exacerbated by climate change, conflict and rising food prices, the UNHCR has provided emergency response support to over 40 countries in the last 18 months, Guterres said.

The UNHCR made 197 emergency deployments in 2007 and this figure has already been exceeded this year, he noted.

'At the end of 2007, there were 11.4 million refugees, and the number is rising. Eighty percent of them are to be found in their regions of origins,' Guterres said.

'We cannot overestimate the generosity of those developing countries that shoulder this responsibility but which continue to extend hospitality to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of refugees,' he added.

Guterres urged the international community to continue to fund the UNHCR's operations despite the current global financial crisis and budgetary constraints.

'I must point out that the resources required to support the 31 million people we care for are very modest indeed when compared to the sums being spent to bring stability to the international financial system,' he said.

'It would be tragic if the funds available to the humanitarian community in general and UNHCR in particular were to decline at the very time when the demands made upon us are increasing so dramatically,' Guterres warned.

The UN refugee agency had said in June that the global number of refugees and displaced people reached 67 million last year, swelling those under the agency's charge to an 'unprecedented' number.

'After a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, we have now seen two years of increases, and that's a concern,' Guterres said then.

The number of refugees and internally displaced people under the UNHCR's care rose by 2.5 million in the year, reaching 'an unprecedented 25.1 million' by the end of 2007.