HEROIN FEAR ON OPIUM CROP

WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan's opium poppy crop has soared. This year's
harvest could be twice as large as last year's near-record crop unless
eradication efforts are stepped up immediately, according to the US State
Department.

The heroin business was "almost definitely" filling the coffers of the
Taliban and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, another Afghan extremist group linked
to Osama bin Laden, the assistant secretary of state for international
narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Robert Charles, said on Thursday. It
was also "possibly" enriching al-Qaeda fighters, he said.

Mr Charles said British authorities had not done enough to eradicate
poppies in their sector in southern Afghanistan. He warned that failure to
stop the bumper harvest, which had already begun in some areas due to
unusually warm weather, would have devastating consequences not only for
the global drug trade but also for Afghan democracy.

"This is crunch time in Afghanistan," Mr Charles told a congressional
panel. "The first crop is coming very rapidly . . . We will pay a price
later if we don't act right now."

The Department of Defence also must do more to crack down on drug
production in Afghanistan, said Republican Mark Souder, chairman of the
criminal justice, drug policy and human resources sub-committee of the
House Government Reform Committee.

"The American people aren't pouring billions of dollars into Afghanistan to
watch it turn into a heroin poppy nation . . . and an undemocratic
narco-terrorist-controlled state," Mr Souder said.

Ninety per cent of the heroin in Europe comes from Afghan poppies. Only 7
to 10 per cent of heroin in the US is believed to originate there. Mr
Charles said cutting the opium flow was central to fighting terrorism and
preventing drug traffickers from undermining the fledgling Afghan democracy.

His statements came a day after Afghan officials pleaded for more help to
stop drug production. President Hamid Karzai warned that drugs were
"undermining the very existence of the Afghan state".

The congressional hearing on Thursday was hastily scheduled after the
United Nations and the Afghan Government released a gloomy assessment on
Afghan opium. The report found farmers planted more poppies than in 2003,
when production was the second highest on record and earned an estimated
$US2.3 billion ($A3 billion) - half the country's legitimate GDP.

In some areas, up to 80 per cent of families were believed to have planted
poppies.

As of February "there were generally no reports of eradication activities"
and some farmers said they would fight to protect their poppy fields, the
UN said.