In the UN General Assembly, Russia and central Asian states have called for effective action to limit the rising production of drugs in Afghanistan.

The international community must do more about drug-production to achieve better security in Afghanistan, said the representative for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), addressing the UN general assembly on Monday.

The defense alliance added that foreign forces have failed to stop the production of narcotic drugs despite possessing all the means necessary.

The organization also warned that the situation in Afghanistan would improve only if more independence is delegated to the government in Kabul.

The news comes a few weeks after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Afghanistan's opiate output has increased more than 40-fold since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Afghanistan produced 185 tons of opium under the Taliban. The amount surged to 3,400 tons and by 2007 opium trade reached all-time high of 8,200 tons.

This is while a new wave of US troops has arrived in Helmand, an opium-growing southern province, where the foreign troops in Afghanistan have lost several grounds to the Taliban in recent months.

RZS/MMN