KARZAI PLEDGES CLEAN UP AFGHAN IMAGE BY HALTING DRUG TRADE

KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai pledged to restore Afghanistan's reputation
by ending its rampant drugs trade.

His promise comes after the United Nations said the country produces up to
90 percent of Europe's heroin, AFP reported.

"We must rescue Afghanistan from the bad reputation it has got from
cultivating and trafficking drugs," Karzai said at a ceremony for the World
Day Against Drug Abuse and trafficking at Kabul's university. "Our religion
is against anything that make the people addicted."

Afghanistan has been one of the world's biggest producers of opium poppies,
used to make heroin, for years.

"Afghanistan is the source of about 70-90 percent of the heroin found in
European markets," Bernard Frahi, the head of the United Nations Drug
Control Program (UNDCP), said here on Tuesday.

"Afghanistan is the source of almost 100 percent of opiates (opium,
morphine and heroin) consumed in neighboring countries meaning Iran,
Pakistan and Central Asian states," including former soviet states, he said.