IVANOV LINKS NATO RIGHTS TO DRUG WAR

The Federal Drug Control Agency said Friday that Moscow should stop
the transportation of cargo across its territory to U.S.-led forces in
Afghanistan if they do not do more to cut the flow of heroin to Russia.

"The granting of transport corridors to NATO forces in Afghanistan
should be conditioned on a commitment to destroy sown areas,
laboratories, stocks and other infrastructure of the Afghan drug
business," agency head Viktor Ivanov told a meeting of ministers and
lawmakers.

"This would ... start the real process of improving the drug situation
in Russia as well as in Central Asian and European countries," he said.

Earlier this year, Russia and its allies in Central Asia established a
transit route for nonlethal supplies to the international forces in
Afghanistan to complement a dangerous route via Pakistan.

Citing United Nations data, Ivanov said Afghanistan's output of
opiates had grown more than 40-fold since 2001, when the U.S.-led
coalition launched its assault on the Taliban. He said the 2008 raw
opium crop topped 7,000 tons.

The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, said Saturday that
Washington was shifting its strategy against Afghanistan's drug trade,
phasing out funding for opium eradication while boosting efforts to
fight trafficking and promote alternate crops.