KABUL, Dec 4: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called senior figures in the country including religious elders and political representatives to a two-day summit on tackling illicit drugs which will begin Dec 9 in Kabul, it was reported on Saturday.

State-run daily Anis published a presidential decree giving details of the summit, which is intended to explore ways of combating the huge growth in the illegal drug trade in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The extremist Taliban regime banned poppy cultivation, but farmers began to grow the crop once again after the fall of the regime in late 2001. The summit will amongst other things discuss alternative livelihoods for such farmers.-dpa