Pakistan on December 19 warned of "grave consequences" for the international community if Afghanistan's economic meltdown continued, urging world leaders to find ways to engage with the Taliban to help prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

Speaking at the opening of a special meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the deepening crisis could bring mass hunger, a flood of refugees and a rise in extremism.

"We cannot ignore the danger of complete economic meltdown," he told the gathering, which also included Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi alongside delegates from the US, China, Russia, the EU and UN.

The meeting is the biggest conference on Afghanistan since the US-backed government fell in August and the Taliban returned to power.

Since then, billions of dollars in aid and assets have been frozen by the international community, and the nation is in the middle of a bitter winter.

The UN has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian emergency with a combined food, fuel and cash crisis.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the world needed to separate the Taliban from ordinary Afghans.

He also urged caution in linking recognition of the new government to Western ideals of human rights. "Every country is different … every society's idea of human rights is different," he said.

No nation has yet formally recognised the Taliban government and diplomats face the delicate task of channelling aid to the stricken Afghan economy without propping up the hardline Islamists.

The Taliban foreign minister said his government "has the right to be officially recognised".

In a speech to delegates, Muttaqi said the US freezing of assets "is a clear violation of the human rights of Afghans, and can be interpreted as enmity with an entire nation".