UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The UN anti-crime agency and the African Union (AU) on Thursday launched a joint initiative to support an AU plan to fight drug-trafficking and related crimes over the continent in the next five years.

    Support for the AU Plan of Action on Drug Control and Crime Prevention was announced at the current session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), as a segment devoted to high officials ended in Vienna, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

    As the high-level segmented concluded, heads of state and ministries mapped out cooperative strategies to confront the world's drug problem.

    The UN-AU project aims at strengthening the capacity of the AU Commission and other regional organizations, especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in policy-making, norm-setting and capacity-building at all levels, UNODC said.

    West Africa has been used as a transit route for narcotics bound for Europe from Latin America due to the African region's porous borders and loose supervision, said the agency.

    According to a UNODC report issued in October 2008, cocaine seizures in the sub-region have doubled every year for the past three years.

    The European Union (EU) has supported the implementation of the AU plan and the ECOWAS regional plan, following the 2007 Lisbon Declaration and the Africa-EU strategic partnership, UNODC said.

    In the latest plan approved at the CND, governments proposed measures to reduce the illegal supply of drugs, as well as remedies for abuse and dependence and ways to control precursors and amphetamine-type stimulants.

    A consensus was also reached on the necessity of international cooperation to eradicate the cultivation of drug-related crops and the importance of alternative development opportunities in areas that rely on growing such crops.

    The CND meeting, scheduled to end on 20 March, attracted over 1,400 participants from 130 countries and a number of organizations.