ANTI-DRUG PACT UNITES CHINA, 3 NEIGHBORS

BEIJING -- Fighting a booming heroin trade, China and three Southeast
Asian neighbors announced an agreement Tuesday to step up cross-border
police cooperation.

The pact came after the first meeting of top anti-drug officials of a
region where gangs that straddle borders have benefited from lack of
coordinated enforcement.

The agreement by China and the countries of the heroin-producing
"Golden Triangle" -- Myanmar, Laos and Thailand -- stops short of
letting police from one country operate in another. But it commits
them to sharing information and collaborating in tracking and
arresting smugglers.

Trafficking of cheap, abundant Southeast Asian heroin into China -- and
to foreign markets beyond -- has boomed in recent years. Gangs also are
branching out into methamphetamines and other manufactured drugs.

The trade has fed growing violence in rugged, hard-to-police border
areas. Chinese police say dozens of officers have been killed in gun
battles with better-armed smugglers. Health officials say intravenous
drug abuse plays a large role in China's spreading AIDS epidemic.

"With this mechanism, we will push drug-control cooperation to a new
stage," Yang Fengrui, chief anti-drug official of China's police
ministry, said of the new agreement.

The pact streamlines cross-border action, though police can't simply
raid other countries, said Kyaw Thein, an official of the Defense
Ministry of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"This agreement will allow law enforcement officials to cross the
border on short notice to discuss with their counterparts what they
want to do," Kyaw Thein said.

The pact also promises better political cooperation. Thailand assigned
its first anti-narcotics liaison officer to its Beijing embassy this
week, said Rasamee Vistaveth of the country's Narcotics Control Commission.

The officials said they would share information on anti-drug treatment
to reduce demand, and on switching opium farmers to coffee and other
crops.

China, Myanmar and Thailand have cooperated on anti-drug efforts on a
small scale since the early 1990s.

Myanmar has carried out arrests at Beijing's request, extraditing one
gang leader to China and another to Thailand, he said.