U.S. ANTI-DRUGS CZAR TO VISIT

The director of American drug policy, Barry McCaffrey, is due in Beijing on
Saturday to begin a three-nation Asian tour to survey treatment programmes
and discuss anti-trafficking cooperation, the US embassy said.

In the mainland, which had 680,000 registered drug addicts last year, the
US anti-drug czar would meet his counterparts in Beijing and look at drug
treatment and prevention programmes in Kunming, near the drug-infested
border with Burma, it said.

Mr McCaffrey - accompanied by a delegation including Randy Beers, the
Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and US drug
research experts and Coast Guard officials - would also visit Hong Kong,
Vietnam and Thailand, it said.

''Our goal is to establish a closer dialogue and enhance co-operation with
these key countries on drug control policy,'' Mr McCaffrey said in a
statement.

''In our meetings with our counterparts we will discuss drug prevention,
treatment and law-enforcement issues, assess common threats and broaden
bilateral initiatives,'' he said.

The mainland nearly wiped out drug abuse after the Communist revolution,
but narcotics have staged a comeback since the country enacted free market
reforms in 1978.

Alarmed by a rapid rise in drug smuggling, especially crystal
methamphetamine - or ''ice'' - the mainland's top police drug-buster Yang
Fengrui unveiled in March plans to step up the war on drugs.

Mr Yang, National Narcotics Control Commission vice director, told state
media that 16 tonnes of ice was seized last year - 10 times more than in
1998 - as well as 5.3 tonnes of heroin.

Much of that came from border regions near the so-called Golden Triangle,
the area where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, Mr Yang told a national
narcotics conference.

Yunnan, which Mr McCaffrey will visit on June 20, has the country's biggest
drug problem and executes some 400 drug dealers each year after public
denunciations.

The mainland sentenced 4,193 citizens last year for growing opium poppies,
Mr Yang said.

Intravenous drug use accounts for more than 70 per cent of the half million
estimated infections of mainlanders by the human immunodeficiency
deficiency virus (HIV) - the virus that causes Aids, official data showed.