US says opium trade undermines Afghan democracy

WASHINGTON, Mar 1 (Reuters) The United States estimated today that Afghanistan's opium production hit a record high last year and said the narcotics trade is undermining democracy and security in the Southwest Asian US ally.

In an annual report on international efforts to control narcotics, the State Department said Peru and Bolivia, the second- and third-largest producers of coca, face fresh challenges to their efforts to reduce cultivation of the plant which is the raw material for cocaine.

The report provided a mixed picture of how well nations are fighting illegal drugs, praising Colombia, the world's largest cocaine supplier, for its ''political will and tenacity'' while suggesting more needs to be done in countries including Afghanistan, Bolivia, Haiti and Venezuela.

The two volume, 1,045-page ''International Narcotics Control Strategy Report,'' which also assesses money laundering and financial crimes, said the prevalence of amphetamine-type stimulants like ''Ecstasy'' was a growing worldwide concern.

The report estimated 172,600 hectares were under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2006, up from 107,400 hectares in 2005. While that was below the record 206,700 hectares in 2004, because of improved crop yields the resulting opium production hit a record of 5,644 tonnes, it said.

''The resurgence of Afghan opium cultivation has increased the flow of heroin to Europe, Russia and the West Asia, which undermines those societies and the consolidation of democracy and security in Afghanistan,'' the report said.

Afghanistan is the world's largest heroin producing and trafficking country, producing more than 90 per cent of the world's opium poppy last year, the report said.

The country has been an ally in the US effort to combat al Qaeda since 2001 when US-led forces toppled the Taliban government that sheltered the group responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Reuters SY VP0025