MYANMAR A CONTINUING TROUBLE SPOT IN DRUG WAR, STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS

WASHINGTON: The State Department's annual drug report said Thursday
that Myanmar remained the world's second-largest opium poppy grower,
after Afghanistan, although opium production continued to fall.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, remains vulnerable to periodic spikes
in opium production, the department's global survey of the drug war
said. Opium is heroin's main ingredient.

Burmese rebel groups, meanwhile, were said to be a continuing major
source of methamphetimine. The country's reduction in opium
cultivation has been accompanied by spikes in the production and
trafficking of synthetic drugs, the report said.

The report praised China and Thailand, both of which border Myanmar
and have been major conduits for illegal drugs produced there, for
their efforts to stem the trade.

Still, China was said to be a major part of the region's drug market
as a transit country and an important producer and exporter of
amphetamines. The report noted that authorities in China see drug
trafficking and drug abuse as a threat to national and economic
security. Corruption was said to limit what Chinese officials could accomplish.

Little data exists for North Korea, but the report said the State
Department believes the country is involved in numerous criminal
enterprises, including the narcotics trade.

In Cambodia, the report said, drug investigations, arrests and
seizures increased in 2006 because of a spike in drug activity and
perhaps because of some increase in law enforcement efforts.