FACTBOX - Afghan opium production at record levels

REUTERS - Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, up from 92 percent last year, the annual United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released on Monday said. Here are some key facts from the report and the opium cultivation cycle in Afghanistan.

POPPIES BLOOM WITH INSTABILITY AND VIOLENCE:

-- Some 80 percent of opium poppies were grown in a handful of provinces along the border with Pakistan, where instability is greatest, the UNODC said.

HELMAND, TOP OPIUM PRODUCING PROVINCE:

-- The volatile southern province of Helmand, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated, produced more than half of Afghanistan's opium crop last year. Opium cultivation rose 48 percent to 102,770 hectares in Helmand in the past year.

AFGHANISTAN IS THE WORLD'S TOP PRODUCER: