The United States, hailing a "national mood change" against the Taliban in Pakistan, offered humanitarian aid for civilians fleeing a Pakistani military offensive to crush the militants.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled 110 million dollars in emergency aid to show US support for the Pakistani people, their democratically-elected leaders and opposition party leaders.

Pakistanis have begun to take the Taliban threat seriously, she said, since the insurgents took up positions just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital Islamabad, having broken out of their northwestern hub in Swat.

"There is a real national mood change on the part of the Pakistani people (and politicians) that we are watching and obviously are encouraged by," Clinton told a press conference at the White House.

"I think it has to do with a recognition that this is no longer about a part of their country that seems quite distant from the population centers, like Lahore or Islamabad or Karachi," the chief US diplomat said.

The US government, she said, had a duty to help Pakistan deal with a national emergency after more than two million people fled the northwest, most of them as a result of the US-backed military offensive in the last few weeks.

"I'm confident that Pakistan's institutions and citizens will succeed in confronting this humanitarian challenge if the international community steps up and provides the support that is needed," she said in announcing the US aid.

"Providing this assistance is not only the right thing to do, but we believe it is essential to global security and the security of the United States, and we are prepared to do more as the situation demands," she said.

The United States, she recalled, had given 60 million dollars in humanitarian aid in the months since August last year.

The new funds will be used to deliver tents, FM radios, halal meat, water trucks, generators and other supplies, Clinton said. Some of the money will go towards buying Pakistani wheat to boost the local economy.

Clinton said US experts and staff from the US embassy in Islamabad were now on the ground working with the Pakistani authorities to evaluate the needs for shelter and food as well as health, water and sanitation services.

She added that 5,000 tents and other supplies have already been flown to Pakistan.

US officials said the US military is helping to fly in some of the items as the Pakistani military oversees their distribution. Other supplies are to be delivered through international aid organizations working on the ground.

She said Pakistanis with cell phones would receive text messages informing them about the assistance program.

Hailing the importance of "people-to-people" diplomacy, the secretary of state also urged Americans using their cell phones to text message donations of five dollars each.

Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to Washington, welcomed the US aid announcement.

"As Pakistan fights the terrorists it needs help in meeting the humanitarian crisis and in rehabilitating the victims of terrorism," Haqqani said in a statement.

The emergency aid comes on top of a more ambitious aid program. A bill introduced in Congress earlier this month would triple civilian US aid to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years.

President Barack Obama's administration, Clinton claimed, is taking a new approach because US "policy toward Pakistan over the last 30 years has been incoherent."

In the 1980s, for example, the United States, with Pakistan as a key partner, supported Islamist militants in the fight against the occupation of Afghanistan by the then-Soviet Union.

In subsequent years, the Islamist fundamentalist Taliban gained control of Afghanistan and offered sanctuary to Al-Qaeda, which launched the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States before both were ousted in a US-led war.

Now the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are making a comeback not only in Afghanistan but in neighboring Pakistan.