RUMSFELD IN KABUL FOR DRUG TALKS

KABUL

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to
Afghanistan on Wednesday to review preparations for the October
presidential election and to go over reconstruction and
counternarcotics programs.

During the daylong visit, he planned consultations with Afghan and
United Nations officials, as well as meetings with senior U.S.
military officials.

Before flying to the Afghan capital, he said that U.S.-led coalition
forces were preparing a coordinated effort to attack the narcotics
trade in the country, recognizing that drug income could be used to
fund insurgents and terrorists.

He offered few details, but noted that the British government
previously had taken the lead in working with President Hamid Karzai's
administration to address the drug trade in Afghanistan.

"There are plans being finished now," Rumsfeld said Tuesday, in Oman
for the first of several visits to U.S. allies in the region. "I don't
want to get into whose troops will do what."

The cultivation of opium poppies has resumed and flourished since 2001
in Afghanistan. The trade was largely eliminated under the Taliban's
religious policing, but farmers have resumed cultivating and
harvesting the profitable crop in the chaos since the Taliban's fall.

American military commanders in Afghanistan have said that they do not
have enough troops to go after the poppy trade and to hunt down
Taliban and Al Qaeda holdouts.

Rumsfeld seemed resigned to some continuation of the poppy trade,
saying that demand for the drug would always lead someone to create a
supply. Heroin made from Afghan poppies generally reaches markets in
Europe and Russia.

Criminals naturally oppose a strong, democratic government in
Afghanistan, he said.

He also suggested drug money had ties to Taliban or Al Qaeda, but
provided no concrete information to back up his statement.

United Nations surveys estimate that Afghanistan has accounted for
three quarters of the world's opium last year, and the trade brought
in $2.3 billion, more than half of the nation's gross domestic product.

New surveys suggest even more has been planted this year, with State
Department officials saying that Afghanistan could have a world record
opium poppy crop this year.

Rumsfeld pointed to the drug war in Colombia as a partial model for
efforts in Afghanistan. There, U.S.-trained military forces attack
narcotics smuggling routes while the Colombian government tries to
eradicate coca growth in the farmlands through aerial spraying. KABUL
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to
Afghanistan on Wednesday to review preparations for the October
presidential election and to go over reconstruction and
counternarcotics programs.

During the daylong visit, he planned consultations with Afghan and
United Nations officials, as well as meetings with senior U.S.
military officials.

Before flying to the Afghan capital, he said that U.S.-led coalition
forces were preparing a coordinated effort to attack the narcotics
trade in the country, recognizing that drug income could be used to
fund insurgents and terrorists.

He offered few details, but noted that the British government
previously had taken the lead in working with President Hamid Karzai's
administration to address the drug trade in Afghanistan.

"There are plans being finished now," Rumsfeld said Tuesday, in Oman
for the first of several visits to U.S. allies in the region. "I don't
want to get into whose troops will do what."

The cultivation of opium poppies has resumed and flourished since 2001
in Afghanistan. The trade was largely eliminated under the Taliban's
religious policing, but farmers have resumed cultivating and
harvesting the profitable crop in the chaos since the Taliban's fall.

American military commanders in Afghanistan have said that they do not
have enough troops to go after the poppy trade and to hunt down
Taliban and Al Qaeda holdouts.

Rumsfeld seemed resigned to some continuation of the poppy trade,
saying that demand for the drug would always lead someone to create a
supply. Heroin made from Afghan poppies generally reaches markets in
Europe and Russia.

Criminals naturally oppose a strong, democratic government in
Afghanistan, he said.

He also suggested drug money had ties to Taliban or Al Qaeda, but
provided no concrete information to back up his statement.

United Nations surveys estimate that Afghanistan has accounted for
three quarters of the world's opium last year, and the trade brought
in $2.3 billion, more than half of the nation's gross domestic product.

New surveys suggest even more has been planted this year, with State
Department officials saying that Afghanistan could have a world record
opium poppy crop this year.

Rumsfeld pointed to the drug war in Colombia as a partial model for
efforts in Afghanistan. There, U.S.-trained military forces attack
narcotics smuggling routes while the Colombian government tries to
eradicate coca growth in the farmlands through aerial spraying. KABUL
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to
Afghanistan on Wednesday to review preparations for the October
presidential election and to go over reconstruction and
counternarcotics programs.

During the daylong visit, he planned consultations with Afghan and
United Nations officials, as well as meetings with senior U.S.
military officials.

Before flying to the Afghan capital, he said that U.S.-led coalition
forces were preparing a coordinated effort to attack the narcotics
trade in the country, recognizing that drug income could be used to
fund insurgents and terrorists.

He offered few details, but noted that the British government
previously had taken the lead in working with President Hamid Karzai's
administration to address the drug trade in Afghanistan.

"There are plans being finished now," Rumsfeld said Tuesday, in Oman
for the first of several visits to U.S. allies in the region. "I don't
want to get into whose troops will do what."

The cultivation of opium poppies has resumed and flourished since 2001
in Afghanistan. The trade was largely eliminated under the Taliban's
religious policing, but farmers have resumed cultivating and
harvesting the profitable crop in the chaos since the Taliban's fall.

American military commanders in Afghanistan have said that they do not
have enough troops to go after the poppy trade and to hunt down
Taliban and Al Qaeda holdouts.

Rumsfeld seemed resigned to some continuation of the poppy trade,
saying that demand for the drug would always lead someone to create a
supply. Heroin made from Afghan poppies generally reaches markets in
Europe and Russia.

Criminals naturally oppose a strong, democratic government in
Afghanistan, he said.

He also suggested drug money had ties to Taliban or Al Qaeda, but
provided no concrete information to back up his statement.

United Nations surveys estimate that Afghanistan has accounted for
three quarters of the world's opium last year, and the trade brought
in $2.3 billion, more than half of the nation's gross domestic product.

New surveys suggest even more has been planted this year, with State
Department officials saying that Afghanistan could have a world record
opium poppy crop this year.

Rumsfeld pointed to the drug war in Colombia as a partial model for
efforts in Afghanistan. There, U.S.-trained military forces attack
narcotics smuggling routes while the Colombian government tries to
eradicate coca growth in the farmlands through aerial spraying.