LONDON (AFP) — The US and Britain are preparing to fight the drug trade in Afghanistan, while other NATO nations like Italy do not want to join in, the head of the UN's anti-drugs office said on Thursday.
Antonio Maria Costa was speaking after NATO defence ministers decided last month to let nations serving in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force volunteer individually to battle drug production.
The comments by the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) came at the launch of survey into opium production in Afghanistan at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank in London.
"As well as from Italy saying no, the US and the UK are saying yes," he said. "The situation will evolve and time will tell eventually what happens.
"My understanding at the moment is that the countries which have decided to intervene are organising themselves to do just that."
British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, who accompanied him, said the NATO move was "a further step in the right direction".
Asked which NATO countries would volunteer to take part in the effort, he said: "A number have. Some are not prepared to do that but we're certainly encouraging all countries."
The report -- a summary of which was published in August -- says there was a 19 percent decrease in the extent of opium cultivation to 157,000 hectares in 2008, adding production was down six percent.
It also says the Taliban and other anti-government forces may have made up to 470 million dollars (365 million euros) from charges and levies on farmers who grow poppies.
The drug money is used to finance the Taliban "war machine", Costa said.
Costa said a sharp drop in the levels of eradication from 19,047 hectares in 2007 to 5,480 hectares in 2008 was down to more farmers opting to grow more attractive alternatives like wheat instead.
"Much more needs to be done" to strengthen controls on routes through Turkey and the Balkans to prevent drugs getting through to other markets, Costa said. Afghanistan supplies over 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin.
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