British Foreign Minister Jack Straw announced Wednesday that Britain would double its funding to fight war-torn Afghanistan's surging drugs trade. "We are increasing our contribution to counter-narcotics efforts by 100 percent from 50 million dollars to 100 million," he told a press conference after meeting President Hamid Karzai. Straw, who was on a one-day visit to the Afghan capital, said the increase in British funding for the fight against drugs would come through in the new financial year beginning April.

"We discussed many issues today including the UK's long-term commitment to this country. We've also discussed the issue of drugs, drugs which blight the lives of far too many people in the UK and across Western Europe," Straw said.

Because Britain was a major source of demand for narcotics, Straw said the country had a responsibility to help scale back poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which now supplies 87 percent of the world's opium, used to produce heroin. Half of the money allocated by Britain would be funnelled into alternative livelihoods for 2.3 million farmers, who have pushed drug cultivation up by 64 percent over the last year, according to United Nations figures.

Straw said law enforcement was an important pillar in the fight against poppy cultivation.

NEW SPECIAL ENVOY: Straw said later that Prime Minister Tony Blair had appointed General John McColl as Britain's new special envoy to Afghanistan.

McColl was the first commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force peacekeepers formed in late 2001 after the fall of the Taleban and has tight links with Karzai.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005