BUSH SENDS DRUG EXPERTS TO AFGHANISTAN

UNITED NATIONS - In a first cautious step toward reducing the
near-total isolation of the Taliban, the Bush administration has sent
two U.S. narcotics experts to Afghanistan as part of an international
team assessing how to help farmers who have ended opium poppy
cultivation, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed that he had approved the
trip in a letter last week to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Experts will meet with farmers and local officials.

U.N. narcotics officials reported earlier this year that it appeared
that the Taliban, a militant Islamic group that controls most of
Afghanistan, had all but wiped out poppy crops under a ban announced
last year. Until this year, Afghanistan was the world's largest
producer of opium, the source of much of the heroin sold in Europe.