US MAY PAY FOR OPIUM CROP DESTRUCTION

The US is attempting to lead an international effort to pay Afghan farmers
to plough under this year's opium poppy crop, which is expected to be
harvested at the end of next month.

The State Department said it was working with the international community
of aid donors to Afghanistan to examine ways to pay farmers to destroy
their own crops, as an alternative to buying the opium poppy harvest outright.

Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and
law enforcement, said the administration was also hoping to use local and
US forces to block the drugs trade.

But in a briefing with reporters, he conceded that Helmand, the largest
opium-producing region of Afghanistan, was not yet secured by either
official Afghan or US forces.

"With respect to enforcement activities, there aren't much, if any, in
terms of the central government," he said. "There are some enforcement
forces that are local."

Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan produced more than 70 per cent of the
world's heroin - a market share that did not decline with the Taliban's ban
on poppy farming two years ago. The new Afghan government led by Hamid
Karzai has also banned opium production.

President George W. Bush on Monday granted Afghanistan a waiver from a
drugs blacklist to allow the country to continue receiving US aid.