TEHRAN, Aug 10 (Reuter) Iran plans to introduce tough legislation calling
for stiffer punishment for drug smugglers, Iranian newspapers reported on
Sunday.

The decision was made at a meeting of Iran's Expediency Council on Saturday
chaired by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and attended by
President Mohammad Khatami.

``Rafsanjani underlined that the punishment of drug traffickers is to be made
more severe in the near future,'' the Tehran Times newspaper reported.

The papers did not give details of the new penalties.

Iran's judiciary and police force had sent a letter to Supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for harsher treatment of offenders, the papers
reported.

Iran is a key transit route for drugs, mostly opium from which heroin is
made, being smuggled to Europe via Turkey from Afghanistan and Pakistan
the socalled ``Golden Crescent.''

More than 1,000 people have been executed in Iran since a 1989 law took
effect imposing the death penalty for possession of five kg (11 lb) of opium
or 30 grams (just over one ounce) of heroin.

02:10 081097