THAILAND OFF U.S. LIST OF DRUG COUNTRIES

WASHINGTON - President Bush has removed Thailand from the U.S.
government list of countries where significant illicit drug
trafficking takes place.

The move was the result of Thailand's progress in reducing opium poppy
cultivation along with advances in other areas, the White House said
Thursday in a statement.

With Thailand deleted from the list, the number of major drug-transit
or drug-producing countries was reduced to 22.

They are: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos,
Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela,
and Vietnam.

Bush reported to Congress that Myanamar, also known as Burma, "failed
demonstrably" for the second consecutive year to adhere to its
obligations under international counternarcotics agreements. It was
the only country to be so designated.

In a separate statement, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles
said Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of illicit opium
and remains among the world's largest producers and traffickers of
amphetamine-type stimulants.

Haiti also was listed as failing in its counterdrug efforts in 2003,
when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was still in office.

Bush credited Haiti's new government, installed after Aristide fled
this past February, with having taken has taken "substantive - if
necessarily limited - counter-narcotics actions in the few months it
has been in office."

Bush also commented about efforts in some other countries, including
several of the 22 on the major traffickers list.

He said the Netherlands continues to be a dominant source country for
illicit drugs but added that it is "an enthusiastic and capable
partner" in counterdrug activities.

Bush praised some aspects of Canada's drug enforcement activities but
said he was concerned about the "lack of significant judicial
sanctions against marijuana producers."

Counternarcotics efforts in Nigeria, he said, "continue to be
undermined by pervasive corruption."

On Afghanistan, Bush expressed concern about the increase in opium
poppy production in the provinces despite good faith efforts on the
part of the U.S.-backed central government. United Nations figures
show that three-quarters of all opium poppy is grown in
Afghanistan.

The president also said he was concerned about North Korean
trafficking of heroin and methamphetamine to East Asian countries and
the "high likelihood" that government agents were involved in the trade.