KABUL: Afghanistan has stepped up its efforts to eradicate poppy crops in 2007 after producing a record amount of the key ingredient for heroin production last year, a senior United Nations (UN) official says.
Officials have destroyed some 25,000 hectares of opium poppy fields so far this year, compared to 15,000 hectares during all of 2006, Andrea Mancini says, the project coordinator of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in central Asia.
He told a gathering of lawmakers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states held in Funchal on Portugal's Madeira Island that "eradication is working".
Some 165,000 hectares were under poppy cultivation in 2006, a 59 per cent increase from the previous year, according to the UN drugs office.
Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin supply and officials say a big portion of the over $US3 billion ($A3.66 billion) generated each year from the trade of the drug helps finance the Taliban insurgency.
"Battling the connection between drugs and conflict requires a long term commitment and the recognition that opium in Afghanistan is as much a narcotic issue as matter of insurgency," Mr Mancini said.
He also says at least half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces should be without opium production in 2008.
By the end of this year 11 to 12 provinces are expected to be without significant poppy cultivation.
NATO should adopt an integrated strategy together with the UN and the European Union that includes economic incentives to encourage Afghan farmers to abandon poppy cultivations as well as eradication drives, Mr Mancini said.
Just over one in 10 Afghans are estimated to be directly involved in the production of heroin.
While poppy cultivation has fallen in northern and central Afghanistan where security is stronger, it has surged in southern Afghanistan where the fundamentalist Taliban has staged its fiercest fighting.
"The south is going wild, it is basically out of control," Mr Mancini said.
Fearing a backlash from the population, the Afghan government has rejected US proposals for chemical spraying of poppy fields and has permitted only time-consuming manual eradication using sticks and tractors.
Anti-drug teams are often the target of suicide bombers and Taliban forces allied with drug lords.
Afghanistan's efforts to stop opium production have left 18 police dead and another 33 wounded this year, most of them in clashes during poppy eradication.
NATO has some 37,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which aims to provide stability to the country.
There are also around 11,000 US-led troops in the country.
Getting rid of illegal drugs has not been a part of the official mission of international forces in the country.
It is the responsibility of the Afghan government which receives assistance from the US and the United Nations. | 
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