¡¡LIMA, July 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Peru will not follow the US-backed Plan Colombia in its own efforts to contain coca production, the country's anti-drug agency chief said Wednesday.

    The program is impracticable as it means the eradication of allcoca cultivation in Peru, where legal growers are allowed to produce an annual nine tons of coca leaves for medical purpose, according to Nils Ericsson, head of the agency, Devida.

    But he said his country, facing the spread of illegal coca planting in recent years, has been intensifying crackdown on the illegal planters in line with the US stand.

    Peru permits about 10,000 hectares of coca planting areas, mostly in the Cuzco region. And dried coca leaves traditionally are chewed by people of the Andes for a stimulating effect and also used for extraction of cocaine and other alkaloids.

    The country, along with the world's leading producer Colombia, slashed its coca production by 70 percent between 1995 and 2001 by resorting to lower prices, interdiction, forced eradication of planting fields and substitute-crop programs.

    Under the Plan Colombia launched in 2000, the United States has given 3.3 billion dollars to the Colombian military forces for training, equipment and intelligence to root out drug traffickers and destroy coca crops.    Enditem