Afghan poppy growth "very serious" threat, U.S. says

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies face a very serious situation battling drug production in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, two days after a U.N. report revealed rampant opium poppy growth.

The area of Afghanistan used to grow poppies -- the source of heroin -- rose by 17 percent in 2007, the U.N. said, despite widespread efforts by the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Afghan authorities to clamp down on cultivation.

More than half the opium is grown in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, where British troops are in charge.

"There's no question about it, in the south the challenge is huge," Richard Douglas, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for counter-narcotics, told Reuters during a stopover in London on his way back from a visit to Afghanistan.

"It's a very serious situation, but by no means hopeless," he said. "We've got a long way to go, but there's also some very encouraging signs."

As a positive, he pointed to the fact that 13 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are now considered "opium free", up from just six last year. Yet despite that, overall production still grew as more land was set aside for poppy growing.

Afghanistan now produces 93 percent of the world's opium, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its report, released on Monday, up from 92 percent in 2006.

More land is dedicated to drug production than in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined and no country has produced so much drugs on a deadly scale since China in the 19th century.