HOLBROOKE CALLS AFGHAN ANTI-DRUG POLICY MOST WASTEFUL HE'S SEEN

Times UK - President Obama is planning an overhaul of the ineffective anti-drugs policy in Afghanistan as Washington prepares to announce the non-military side of its strategy to defeat the Taleban. Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to the region, announced at the weekend that Congress would soon be asked for funds to rebuild the Afghan economy. . .

The biggest disaster, according to Mr Holbrooke, is the botched antinarcotics programme that has failed to stop Afghanistan supplying most of the world's heroin. Mr Obama is expected to announce his strategy for Afghanistan this week before the 60th anniversary summit of Nato in April.

"The United States alone is spending over $800 million a year on counter-narcotics. We have gotten nothing out of it, nothing," Mr Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum on Saturday. "It is the most wasteful and ineffective programme I have seen in 40 years.". . .

According to US government figures, last month Afghanistan supplied 90 per cent of the heroin in the world. "By forced eradication we are often pushing farmers into the Taleban hands," Mr Holbrooke said. "We are going to try to reprogramme that money. About $160 million is for alternate livelihoods and we would like to increase that."