The Guardian, Britain and the United States are at odds over how to deal with the massive growth in the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan.
Poppy growing areas in the country doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than under Taliban rule, according to figures released by the US last week.
But European intelligence sources and independent experts say that Washington, while publicly expressing concern, in practice is turning a blind eye to the opium crop because it needs the support of the warlords, including those in the north of the country who control the bulk of the poppy harvest.
As the White House put it: “A challenging security situation… has complicated significantly the task of implementing counter-narcotics assistance programmes, and will continue to do so for the immediate future.”
The area planted with poppies, used to make heroin and morphine, was 152,000 acres (61,500 hectares) in 2003, compared with 76,900 acres in 2002 and 4,210 acres in 2001, the White House office of national drug control policy said.
The crop will be worth about
