The Islamic Republic says the volume of opium-based drugs smuggled from Afghanistan into Iran has risen fivefold in the last five years.

"Unfortunately the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and worse day in day out. If you compare it to five or six years ago, it is more than gloomy," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper on Thursday.

"I wish we could have just opium. But with 350 laboratories [Afghan drug producers] are converting opium to heroin and crystal," he added.

The Iranian official also pointed out that 65% of the laboratories were in Afghanistan's Helmand province, where British forces are based.

Safari further criticized NATO's "failure" to curb opium production in neighboring Afghanistan and said, "They say our duty is to fight against the terrorists, not to fight against the drugs. But you cannot differentiate between the two acts. This is very correlated. This is a good income for the insurgents and the terrorist groups ... we have to work on the package: terrorists, insurgents and narcotics."

The Iranian official made the remarks at the end of a three-day visit to Britain, after talks with the foreign secretary, David Miliband, and other Foreign Office and Downing Street officials, to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues.

HRF/DT