U.S. TO NATO: HELP DESTROY POPPY FIELDS

Canada Fears Eradication Plan Puts Troops at Risk

The United States wants NATO forces in Afghanistan to launch a major
offensive this spring to counter an anticipated spring campaign by
the Taliban, and will press NATO tomorrow to get directly involved in
Afghanistan's controversial poppy-eradication programs.

A senior State Department official says troops from NATO nations must
provide security for opium crop-eradication projects, including new
plans for chemical spraying of poppy fields -- which is something
Canada rejects.

"There's a lot of talk, you hear it in the media, about a spring
offensive, that the Taliban has a military offensive in mind for the
spring," says Kurt Volker, a chief U.S. State Department official
responsible for NATO policy.

"Well, we want to have our own offensive, and it should be civilian
and military.

"Part of this is going to be (poppy) eradication, and

NATO needs to provide security support for ground-based spraying and
ground-based eradication."

Mr. Volker made his comments in an interview this week with the
independent New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, in a
discussion about what the U.S. will demand of NATO foreign ministers
at tomorrow's meeting in Brussels.

Afghanistan is the world's largest opium supplier.

While Canada officially supports the policy of opium-crop eradication
in Afghanistan -- because much of the profit from opium sales fuels
the Taliban insurgency -- Canada's military is wary of getting
actively involved in supporting eradication work.

That is now mostly carried out by the Afghan government and other agencies.

Plowing up poppy fields angers Afghan farmers who rely on the crops
for their livelihood, and fosters a climate of grievance that helps
the Taliban in their recruiting efforts.

Canadian commanders in Kandahar have said that any direct involvement
by their troops in eradication programs would put their soldiers at
risk, and impede their efforts to win the "hearts and minds" of the
Afghan people.

This week, one of Canada's senior diplomats in Kandahar, Gavin
Buchan, also said Canada has "significant reservations" about new
U.S. efforts to speed up the eradication process through chemical
spraying of farmers' fields.

Mr. Buchan told The Canadian Press that some Afghans believe chemical
spraying carried out during the Russian occupation in the 1980s
caused diseases among Afghan people.

But Mr. Volker says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will ask
NATO countries to order their troops in Afghanistan to provide
security for poppy eradication projects.

He said NATO's new spring offensive should be "broad gauged -- it
should be reconstruction, development, it should be counter-narcotics
and it should be security and military as well. And that's what (Ms.
Rice) wants to talk about with her counterparts."

Mr. Volker also says the U.S. is unhappy with the restrictions placed
by some NATO countries on their troop activities in Afghanistan.

Some European nations with troops in Afghanistan have restrictive
rules for engaging the enemy, or aren't allowed to operate in
volatile areas, such as Kandahar Province, where Canada has 2,500 troops.

Mr. Volker says Ms. Rice will push for a more aggressive military
contribution by some countries.

"We can't have an alliance where some are fighting and some are not," he said.