Reprinted from United Press International

ROME -- Afghanistan is expected to have a bumper poppy crop this year, harvesting as much as 3,400 tons, up from 185 tons in 2001, according to U.N. drug control chief Antonio Costa.

Costa blames the record production of opium on a weak central government and the lack of international commitment to the development of the war-shattered country. The central government has little control outside Kabul and cannot enforce the country's anti-drug laws.

Costa, who heads the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera: "Compared to the 185 tons harvested in 2001 under the ban enforced by the Taliban regime, we are back to the levels of the 1990s."

But he added that seeds for this bumper crop were sown in the summer of 2001, when the Taliban militia was still in power.

Since the Taliban's fall last December, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased rapidly. According to the United Nations, since the Taliban's fall more than 75,000 hectares have been planted in poppies.

U.N. officials say that there's no incentive for the farmers to move to other crops.

"One kilogram of opium currently trades for about $350. Multiply that by 3,400 tons and you get a $1.2 billion market," Costa said. Some 40 percent of the harvest comes from the southern Afghan province of Helmand, he said.

Local warlords also encourage poppy cultivation to finance their individual militias.

Opium is used for processing heroin at laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. Heroin manufactured from Afghan opium finds its way to Europe, the Middle East and America.