AFGHANS LEAD WORLD AGAIN IN POPPY CROP

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 27 - Opium production in Afghanistan soared to
near-record levels in 2002, making the war-ravaged country again the
world's leading producer of the drug, according to a United Nations
estimate released on Saturday.

United Nations officials blamed "the total collapse of law and order" in
the country during the American military campaign to oust the Taliban in
the fall of 2001 for the increase, not the country's new government.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, said in Rome that the fledgling government of the Afghan
president, Hamid Karzai, had tried to stem production, but needed more aid
from the international community.

"These figures are not the manifestation of a failure of Afghan
authorities," he said. "They can only be interpreted in the context of that
country's realities of the past year."

The annual survey estimates that in 2002 Afghanistan will produce more than
3,700 tons of opium, which is used to produce heroin. That marks a huge
increase over the 185 tons produced by the country in 2000, when the
Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, issed an edict declaring the practice
illegal.

Afghanistan produced a record 5,070 tons of opium in 1999, according to the
survey.

Mr. Karzai's government announced an effort to pay farmers to allow
government officials to destroy their opium crops earlier this year. But
the program was thwarted by a lack of adequate money, violent
demonstrations by farmers and the refusal of some local officials to
destroy the crops.

Mr. Costa called on the international community to help strengthen Afghan
antinarcotics agencies and finance programs that reward farmers for growing
legal crops.

In addition to fueling addiction in Afghanistan and in Europe and the
United States, cash from opium sales could help further destabilize
Afghanistan itself. For years, rival warlords have fought over proceeds
from the trade, which they use to pay and equip their own small private
militias.

High prices for the lucrative crop may also have helped fuel demand this
year. The report estimated that the roughly 3,700 tons produced in 2002
will net a record $1.2 billion. The Taliban's sharp cutback in opium
production in 2000 sent the prices for the drug soaring worldwide.

The report found that 90 percent of the opium was produced in just five of
the country's 32 provinces: Helmand in the south, Nangarhar in the east,
Badakhshan in the north, and Oruzgan and Kandahar in the south, in order of
production. All of those provinces are in areas where Mr. Karzai's weak
central government has struggled to exert its authority.