KABUL, May 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A counter-narcotics campaign has been carried out by Counter Narcotics Police (CNP) in all the provinces of Afghanistan, officials have announced.

    "We will destroy all the poppy land during this three-step campaign, and help to supply other livelihood alternatives for local farmers as well," Minister of Counter Narcotics Habibullah Qaderi and Deputy of Interior Ministry on Counter Narcotics Daoud Daoud announced Saturday in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Badakhshan during their visit there.

    "The campaign will be held in different provinces according to different weather. CNP will go to some northern and southern provinces early because of their warmer weather and early cultivation, and the cleanup will extend to other provinces later," Qaderi was quoted Sunday by local independent newspaper Arman-e-Millie as saying.

    The counter narcotics campaign in Badakhshan will be carried out from this week, and CNP will begin the clean-out in different districts respectively. The government has supplied 15 million US dollars for the local farmers to take other life alternatives instead of poppy cultivation.

    The campaign has been carried out in other provinces like Helmand where some obstacles were met from local persons. CNP faced resistance of local armed farmers during the narcotic destruction in Afghan southern province of Helmand, where four tons of opium has been destroyed during the past two days, according to a report from the Interior Ministry issued Saturday.

    The narcotic destruction program is in the second step in Helmand, and some intense firefights even broke out between police and local farmers during the first destruction step carried out last month.

    In Afghanistan's eastern province of Jalalabad, CNP has destroyed 240 kg heroin and two tons of opium, and shut down 20 labs for making heroin during last week, the report added.

    After established in 2004, CNP has made great progress in anti-narcotic fight by destroying 100 tons opium and 30 tons chemicals used to make opium to heroin.

    Afghanistan, with an output of 3,600 tons of opium in 2003, became the largest producer of the raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world. The country secured the same position in 2004 with a harvest of more than 4,000 tons of the menace. With the highest amount of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, Helmand, Jalalabad and Badakhshan almost cover 50 percent of the opium production of the country.

    In a bid to overcome the challenges, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has just finished his official tour to the United States, has urged the international community to boost its assistance in war against drugs. He also said that due to his government's efforts poppy cultivation dropped 30 percent this year and the figure would further go down next year. The government in its anti-drug drive destroyed over 15,000 hectares of poppy fields last year, and the campaign is still going on.    Enditem