US, MAINLAND TEAM UP TO FIGHT NARCOTICS TRADE

The mainland and the United States yesterday signed their first agreement
aimed at stopping the spread of illegal drugs, a move both sides hailed as a
breakthrough in fighting crime.

"Today the United States and China signed a mutual legal assistance
agreement allowing both China and the United States to begin sharing
evidence and information relating to crime and drugs," US national drug
policy tsar Barry McCaffrey said. "This is an important moment and is the
first legal agreement between these two great countries."

Mr McCaffrey is leading a delegation that includes senior officials from the
State Department, the Defence Department, Drug Enforcement Agency and
coastguard.

During his two days of talks in Beijing he met senior officials and
discussed the mainland's growing problems with heroin and methamphetamines.
He also visited a forensic laboratory of the Public Security Bureau.

Joint co-operation will now include sharing "strategic drug evidence" in
fighting international crime syndicates, co-operation in curbing
international money laundering, and controlling the trafficking of precursor
chemicals for methamphetamines, heroin and cocaine.

The US also agreed to co-operate on curbing arms smuggling by drug
organisations. "We also discussed the possible co-operation between the FBI
and the Chinese side," Mr McCaffrey said.

As a leading producer of ephedrine, a precursor for methamphetamine or the
drug, "ice", the mainland has become the primary source of the ephedrine
used in methamphetamine produced in Indochina, Japan, the Philippines and
Thailand.

Yang Fengrui, director of narcotics control at the Public Security Ministry,
said he looked forward to co-operating with the US in fighting the growing
domestic heroin trade originating from poppy fields in neighbouring Burma
and Afghanistan.

"China and the United States are not producers of heroin, but are victims,"
Mr Yang said. "During the Opium Wars more than 100 years ago China was
victimised by drugs, we will never forget this."

Co-operation between the mainland and the US in the war against drugs began
in the late 1980s but picked up speed following a 1998 US-China summit.
"With Mr McCaffrey's visit, co-operation on fighting drugs between China and
the United States has entered into a new stage," Mr Yang said.