AFGHANISTAN OPIUM OUTPUT INCREASES TO RECORD LEVELS

(UNITED NATIONS) - Opium production soared to record levels in
Afghanistan this year, increasing the world's supply of the illicit
crop by 60 percent, despite assurances from the country's Taliban
rulers that they are combatting narcotics, the United Nations said
yesterday.

Once refined into heroin, the crop will find its way to markets in
Western Europe and the United States unless countries bordering
Afghanistan can intercept shipments, the U.N. International Drug
Control Program said.

In its annual opium survey, the U.N. agency, which is headquartered in
Vienna, said Afghanistan's total production of raw opium for 1999 was
estimated at a record 5,000 tons -- more than double last year's
harvest of 2,300 tons.