AFGHANS NO. 1 IN OPIUM

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 4 - Afghanistan was the world's largest source of
illicit opium in 2002, according to a United Nations report released on
Monday, which estimates that opium revenues amounted to $1.2 billion in
that country while the average daily wage was only $2 per day.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Office on Drugs and Crime,
says this drug economy has been built up by two decades of internal
conflict, and can only be dismantled by "the instruments of democracy, the
rule of law and development."

The report calls for international support to the Afghan government in
providing its farmers with viable alternatives to opium.