OPIUM CROP ROSE 23% LAST YEAR, CIA TELLS U S SENATE

COLOMBIA - A CIA analysis made public Tuesday says that the cultivation of
the opium poppy rose 23 percent in Colombia last year and that Colombian
heroin increasingly joined cocaine in reaching U.S. streets.

Barry McCaffrey, White House drug control chief, disclosed the data at a
Senate hearing in Washington before heading to Colombia for three days of
talks on a $1.6 billion U.S. aid plan to fight drugs.

A week ago, McCaffrey announced a 20 percent surge in Colombian coca
production despite a U.S.-backed program to spray and kill the crops.
Growing of coca in Bolivia and Peru declined sharply last year, yielding an
overall decrease in regional production.

McCaffrey and other administration officials are trying to sell the
two-year aid plan to Congress, stressing that Colombia itself will spend $4
billion, with nearly $2 billion more from Europe and international lenders.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said he is not convinced Colombia is committed
to cutting drug production.