TALEBAN POPPY PLEA

ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's ruling Taleban has called on the international
community for urgent funding to help it eradicate opium poppies.

The head of the Afghan Drug Control Programme in Islamabad said they were
trying to implement a recently announced ban on narcotics but were in a
critical economic situation.

The United Nations has been forced to abandon its programme providing opium
farmers with alternative livelihoods because of a lack of international
support.

The Taleban says it is still committed to the countrywide ban on opium
poppy cultivation announced two months ago.

The head of drugs control for the Taleban embassy in Islamabad, Mullah
Hamid Akhunzada, said the Taleban had done what it could and they were now
waiting for the world community to fulfill its responsibilities.

FUND CRUNCH

A recent UN survey says Afghanistan remains the largest opium producer in
the world but that, for the first time in six years, the amount of area
cultivated with opium poppies has decreased.

The UN has been keen to expand development projects offering farmers
assistance to grow crops other than opium.

However, the UN will now be closing this programme down at the end of the
year, six months earlier than planned, because the money has ran out.

Both the UN and the Taleban are keen to see such projects expanded.

However, the unwillingness of some donors to fund projects inside
Afghanistan means there will be little incentive for farmers to stop
growing opium poppies.