UN fears Afghan poppy cultivation could rise

A “cancer of insurgency” in southern Afghanistan could drive the 2007 opium poppy harvest to record levels, the UN drug agency chief warned.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime predicted that last year’s harvest record would be broken by an increase in 15 provinces, including Helmand – the world’s largest poppy-growing region and the scene of a growing number of attacks by Taliban fighters who use opium to fund their insurgency.