MADRID, Dec 14 (Reuter) - The heads of the world's leading aid organisations called on governments on Thursday to do more to prevent humanitarian crises and not to rely on aid to solve them after the event. The Madrid declaration, a document setting out a new agenda in the face of an unprecedented global need for aid, will be presented to Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez before the European Union summit starting on Friday. It said the cost of humanitarian aid had ballooned to more than $4 billion annually in the last five years, adding that most of this was spent on responding to crises and not enough on preventing them. "It is clear that humanitarian assistance is neither a solution, nor a panacea for crises which are essentially man-made," the document said. "We appeal to the international community at large for determination...not to use humanitarian activities as a substitute for political action," it added. The meeting, chaired by European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Emma Bonino and includin

g both governmental and non-governmental organisations, applauded the signing of the Bosnia peace accord in Paris on Thursday. The agency heads said they had discussed Bosnian reconstruction plans but did not announce any specific new measures beyond a commitment to increase cooperation between the U.S. and Europe. U.S. officials said Washington would provide $85.6 million in immediate economic and humanitarian reconstruction aid for Bosnia. The U.S. is expected to contribute a total $500 to $600 million towards the forecast total $6 billion cost of reconstruction, according to a European Union statement. "Hopefully some of the work that the agencies are doing there (in Bosnia) will be more in development," said Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She said volunteers had been very frustrated at the lack of political action during the four years of the Balkan conflict. "My workers have said 'enough'. Humanitarian workers cannot be fig-leaves," Ogata said. "The links between relief and

development must be strengthened and local capacity to cope must be reinforced," the declaration added. Agency heads called for the same international commitment to be used to resolve less prominent conflicts like those in Rwanda and Burundi. "We request urgent political action in the same way as it has been done for Bosnia," said Doris Schopper, president of Medecins sans Frontieres. The declaration said the guiding principles of humanitarian work -- humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence -- must be respected.