CHINA, NEIGHBORS FIGHT HEROIN

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.