MYANMAR IS TOP OPIUM PRODUCER

BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar is once again the world's top opium producer
because of a sharp drop in production of the drug in Afghanistan, according
to the latest U.S. government survey.

Myanmar overtook Afghanistan, which had been the No. 1 opium producer for
the past three years, despite having its smallest opium harvest since the
mid-1980s this year, the survey showed. Opium is used to make heroin.

Myanmar produced an estimated 865 metric tons of opium in 2001, down from
1,085 tons in 2000, a U.N. official said, citing the State Department's
Annual Survey of Opium Cultivation and Production.