US House puts conditions on Afghan aid

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) US lawmakers voted to bar US government aid to areas of Afghanistan where officials are engaged in the drug trade or helping insurgents, brushing aside Bush administration protests against such conditions.

The US House of Representatives also required that the Bush administration report to Congress on the reported flow of Iranian arms into Afghanistan, and lawmakers voiced concerns that Iran might be aligning with Taliban insurgents to destabilize the Afghan government.

The requirements were laid down yesterday in bipartisan legislation approving 6.4 billion dollars in economic and development aid for Afghanistan through fiscal year 2010. Lawmakers were renewing a five-year-old law funneling assistance to the country as part of efforts to combat Taliban fighters.

But the bill, approved 406-10, must still pass the Senate, where similar legislation is being discussed.

''We cannot allow a resurgence of the Taliban. If we do, al Qaeda will once again be able to use Afghanistan as a state-sponsored launching pad for terror,'' said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat.

Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the committee's ranking Republican who co-sponsored the bill with Lantos, defended the emphasis on developing a counter-narcotics strategy -- including barring US aid to areas of Afghanistan where senior officials are found to be engaging in drug trade or helping the insurgents.

She said the ''poppy cult'' and profits from heroin were financing and strengthening the Taliban, waging an insurgency since they were ousted from government by a US-led invasion in 2001.

A White House statement protested setting the conditions on aid, saying it would set an ''unrealistically high bar'' to assistance and potentially harm areas with significant needs.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium and supplies about 90 percent of the world's heroin.

Taliban violence has picked up in recent weeks following a winter lull in fighting, despite the presence of nearly 50,000 NATO and US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan.

The House approved an amendment by Rep. Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, requiring the Pentagon to report twice a year to Congress on Iranian-made weapons provided to the Taliban, and any evidence the sales are endorsed by the government of Iran.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced concern earlier this week about a flow of Iranian arms to Taliban but said he had no information linking Tehran to the supply of weapons.

REUTERS JK BST0547