state is slowly becoming a reality," he said in the report. "Opium cultivation, which has spread like wildfire throughout the country, could ultimately incinerate everything: democracy, reconstruction and stability." The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004 found cultivation rose 64 percent over 2003, with 131,000 hectares (323,701 acres) dedicated to the poppies that produce opium. That set a double record, Costa said: "the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world." The total output of 4,200 tons was only 17 percent higher than last year because bad weather and disease reduced yields by almost 30 percent, the survey found. Still, 2004 production was close to the peak of 4,600 tons in 1999 _ a year before the Taliban banned new cultivation. By contrast, opium production in southeast Asia's notorious "Golden Triangle" has diminished 75 percent and "may soon be declared drug free," he said. Most heroin from Afghanistan ends up on the streets of Europe. British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, whose country is leading the counter narcotics effort in Afghanistan, said there was an international commitment to support the Afghan government fight the problem. "The challenge is substantial and complex, but we and the Afghans are in this for the long haul," he said in a statement. "We will be working with the Afghan government and all their international partners to ensure increased activity and delivery over the next 12 months."
