October 09, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 26, 1428

NEW YORK, Oct 8: In a bid to halt burgeoning poppy crop in Afghanistan US officials have renewed efforts to persuade President Hamid Karzai’s

government to begin spraying herbicides on opium crop, the New York Times said on Monday.

In a lead story, the newspaper said that many spraying advocates, including officials at the White House and the State Department, viewed herbicides as critical to curbing Afghanistan’s poppy crop. That crop and the opium and heroin it produces have become a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.

The issue, the Times said, had created sharp divisions within the Afghan government, among its Western allies and even American officials of different agencies. The matter is fraught with political danger for Mr Karzai whose hold on power is weak.

Since early this year, Mr Karzai has repeatedly declared his opposition to spraying the poppy fields, whether by crop-dusting aeroplanes or by eradication teams on the ground.

Afghan officials said the Karzai administration was now re-evaluating that stance. Some proponents within the government were pushing a trial programme of ground spraying that could begin before the harvest next spring, the Times said.

However, according to the newspaper, officials said that sceptics — who include American military and intelligence officials and European diplomats in Afghanistan — feared that any spraying of American-made chemicals over Afghan farms would be a boon to Taliban propagandists. Some of those officials say that the political cost could be especially high if the herbicides destroy food crops that farmers often plant alongside poppies.