Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source.

A furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, according to US officials.

As President George W. Bush prepares for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the US administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a USD 475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban.

UN figures to be released in September are expected to show that
Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year.

But counterdrug proposals by some US officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said.

The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication, arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials, and on alternative crop production.

AGB/AGB