ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Reuter) Kazakhstan has become caught up in the
international drug trade and the former Soviet republic has the largest
potential in the world for producing cannabis, U.N. and Kazakh officials said
Tuesday.

``The problem of cannabis is extremely significant for Kazakhstan, because
there is no larger potential for its production than in Kazakhstan,'' Herbert
Behrstock, U.N. Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan, told a news conference.

Presenting the latest U.N. drug report, Behrstock said that cannabis
produced in large quantities across Central Asia remains the most used
drug in the world. ``This is a warning for all of us,'' he said.

Nurlan Abdirov, head of Kazakhstan's recently formed State Drug Control
Committee, said cannabis was grown in huge amounts in the vast Chu Valley
which Kazakhstan shares with Kyrgyzstan.

Abdirov said cannabis is grown on at least 138,000 hectars in Kazakhstan and
on a further 60,000 hectars in Kyrgyzstan. A hectar is roughly 2.5 acres.

``But Kazakhstan has also become a transit country in the international drug
trade,'' he told the same news conference.

Abdirov said that narcotics mostly cheap raw opium from Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Iran are transported across Kazakh territory to Russia and
then further to Europe.

The borders of Kazakhstan a huge country of rolling steppes five times the
size of France but with a population of just 16.7 million people pose
little obstacle to international drug traders, he said.