BOLIVIA NOTCHES RECORD YEAR IN COCAINE FIGHT, UN

VIENNA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The Bolivian government last year destroyed a
record quantity of the leaf used to make cocaine in the country's main coca
growing region, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The U.N. International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) said in a statement
that 11,621 hectares (28,715 acres) of coca leaf were eradicated. About
3,620 hectares (8,945 acres) were replanted with coca in the same period,
resulting in a net decrease of 8,001 hectares (19,770 acres)

"The total hectarage eradicated and the net decrease in an area under
cultivation are record figures and represent unprecedented achievement in
Bolivian history," according to the statement which was released on
Wednesday night in Vienna.

"Only twice in the 1990s had Bolivia been able to record a net eradication,
and in both cases the figure had been in the order of 2,000 hectares," the
UNDCP said.

The coca leaf is the basic ingredient for the manufacture of cocaine.

As of January 1, some 28,000 hectares (69,200 acres) in Chapare were under
coca cultivation, down from 36,000 (88,900 acres) a year ago.

The Bolivian government's war on drugs, which has led to violent clashes
between security forces and coca leaf farmers, aims to eradicate 8,000
hectares of coca annually for the next four years. This would lead to the
elimination of illicit narcotics crops by 2002.