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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Nato to target Afghan drugs trade | Nato to target Afghan drugs trade |
| (11 minutes later) | |
| Nato has agreed its troops will be allowed to attack opium factories for the first time in Afghanistan. | Nato has agreed its troops will be allowed to attack opium factories for the first time in Afghanistan. |
| Alliance spokesman James Appathurai said troops will act with Afghan forces "against facilities and facilitators" using drugs to finance the Taleban. | Alliance spokesman James Appathurai said troops will act with Afghan forces "against facilities and facilitators" using drugs to finance the Taleban. |
| Agreement was reached during a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Budapest. | Agreement was reached during a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Budapest. |
| Nato countries have been under pressure from US officials, who want more aggressive tactics against the booming opium trade in Afghanistan. | Nato countries have been under pressure from US officials, who want more aggressive tactics against the booming opium trade in Afghanistan. |
| Several Nato members have expressed reluctance to take such action, fearing that any crackdown would prompt a violent backlash against allied troops. | |
| Mr Appathurai said participation would be "subject to the authorisation of respective nations". | Mr Appathurai said participation would be "subject to the authorisation of respective nations". |
| 'Scourge' | |
| Nato's top operations commander Gen John Craddock attended the Budapest talks to push for more concerted action by alliance members. | |
| He told them the Afghan opium trade is bankrolling the Taleban insurgency to the tune of $100m (£57m) a year. | |
| "You cannot have a safe and secure environment with a scourge of narcotics rampant," he told Reuters news agency on Thursday. | |
| His remarks come amid anxiety that opium production far exceeds global demand and that international drug cartels must have stockpiled huge quantities. | |
| The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, is urging the international community to "find the missing opium". | |
| "These stockpiles are a time bomb for public health and global security," he has said. | |
| It is estimated that bumper poppy harvests have yielded twice as much opium as needed to satisfy every known heroin user on the planet. | |
| British law enforcement officers working undercover in southern Afghanistan are reporting seizures of "enormous quantities of precursors" - the chemicals required to process opium - suggesting vast amounts of heroin may be hidden in the lawless region. |