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TACOMA, Washington, Monday (AFP)

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday wrapped up a critical five-nation, six-day diplomatic swing that took him through the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas on a mission to stabilize an increasingly turbulent South Asia.

As he began the trip last Tuesday, Powell welcomed reporters accompanying him to a "magical mystery tour" with stops in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and finally Japan, site of a donors conference for Afghan reconstruction.

"It was not as mysterious (as magical), thank heavens," Powell told those same reporters Monday as he winged his way home from Tokyo where he announced a nearly 300-million-dollar US contribution to help rebuild Afghanistan.

"From my standpoint, it was a good trip, we were able to cover a lot of ground, not just figuratively but literally," he said. "I am very satisfied with the outcome."

In Islamabad and New Delhi, Powell urged a resumption of dialogue between the two sides as he met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, defying widespread conventional wisdom that troop withdrawals were the more important thing to push for.

"I'm pleased with what we were able to do in India and Pakistan for the moment, but I've got no illusions," Powell said. "I now need more movement there before something happens to have us sliding backwards."

In order to keep up the diplomatic pressure he said he would be re-engaging with both India and Pakistan "as soon as I get back to Washington."

In between his stops in Islamabad and New Delhi, Powell sandwiched in a lightning five-and-a-half hour visit to Kabul, the war-shattered Afghan capital, where he vowed the United States would not abandon the country and pledged "significant" US support for interim leader Hamid Karzai's government.

Powell said he was struck by the scope of the devastation he saw by air as well as on the ground where he redesignated the US liaison mission an embassy and met with Karzai and his administration to discuss their needs ahead of the Tokyo conference.

"Kabul was impressive but it also gave me a sense of the depth and breadth of the problem -- what's ahead in some ways is going to be far more difficult than what we've seen behind over the last four months," he said, referring to the US military campaign.

But far from lavishing new financial or military assistance on the government, Powell was able to promise the Nepalese only sympathy and moral support for their struggle and give them a pledge to look into additional aid in coming years.

The secretary took a tough line with the Nepalese, telling them a state of emergency imposed in November after an upsurge in Maoist activity should be lifted as soon as possible and that human rights must be respected while it is still in place.

He also told Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba that his government needed to be improved in comments that one US official likened to "tough love."

Powell took a different line altogether.

"Nepal was a wonderful stop and I came away impressed with the commitment that the prime minister is making to good governance," he said. 

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