Afghan hopes to eradicate poppy crops

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today that if current trends continue, his war-battered country hopes to eradicate opium poppy cultivation in five to ten years.

Karzai, who is in France for his first official visit as president, said poppy cultivation in Afghanistan emerged out of the despair of its impoverished population years ago. But recent successes in fighting the crop have left him optimistic.