ISLAMABAD, March 4: The governments of the South Asian countries assume that drug trafficking is one of the major sources of funds for terrorist groups, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report-2003 , launched at the United Nations Information Centre on Wednesday, reveals.

The report launched by a UN official, Yousaf Mahmood, at a press conference said terrorism along national borders was considered a serious issue, as insurgent groups were relying on trafficking in narcotics as a prime source of finance used to procure arms.

It pointed out that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan had increased after the downfall of the Taliban government. It said the crop was also being cultivated in Pakistan and India.

It said that although the country became a poppy free country last year, reports showed that the crop was harvested over 2,500 hectors in the NWFP and Balochistan. Mr Mehmood said the government had decided to launch an improvement programme of the Anti-Narcotics Force at a cost of Rs260 million, which would help control drug trafficking.

It said most of the heroin originating in Afghanistan and smuggled through the Pakistan-India border was in transit, passing through the southern states of India and destined for Europe. "Significant heroin seizure in southern India, in particular in Tamil Nadu, confirm that heroin from India continues to be smuggled into Sri Lanka by sea," it said.

It said reports from several countries, including Pakistan, indicated that pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotics, such as codeine cough syrups, codeine tablets, dextroproposyphene injection and pathedine injections were abused.

The report said several jurisdictions had noted a significant increase in illegal mail order shipments containing psychotropic substances ordered on the Internet. One such shipment, detected by Swiss authorities, originated in Pakistan.

It said that in 2003, just over 2,500 hectors of poppy were reported to have been harvested in Pakistan against an estimated cultivation over 6,700 hectors. The INCB called for community-based intervention to address drug trafficking and related crimes and violence.

It stressed that the impact of illicit drugs and crime was highly damaging to the communities and emphasized on the governments to implement comprehensive policies to control those.

The report said Pakistan was declared poppy free in 2002/01, when poppy cultivation levels were below commercially exploitable levels. "After maintaining the status quo for two years, poppy cultivation resumed in Pakistan, mainly in the non-traditional poppy growing areas of the NWFP, particularly in the Khyber and Kurram agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Kohistan district."