Director, Drug Control Agency Rustam Nazarov of Tajikistan

At the same time Nazarov said that the detention of raw opium in the Central Asian countries was going down.

Tajik Drug Control Agency first deputy head Rustam Nazarov said on 1 June that Afghanistan is expected to produce 4,000 tons of opium in 2004, ITAR-TASS reported.

Nazarov said Afghan heroin laboratories stamp their products with trademarks that often boldly display their names and points of origin.

Nazarov was asked about allegations linking General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek leader who controls much of northern Afghanistan, and Amir Latif, the governor of Kunduz province, to the drug trade.

Speaking at a meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions and representatives of international organisations accredited in Tajikistan, Rustam Nazarov said only 652 km of the 1,344 km-long border were equipped with any substantial defences against trafficking.

the governor of Kunduz province, to the drug trade.

Nazarov said that, ever since Iran sealed its Afghan border against traffickers in 1989, Tajikistan has increasingly become the favoured route for sending drugs to Central Asia, Russia and Europe.

Nazarov said the authorities closely monitor the use of illegal chemicals in Tajikistan, including components that may be used to make heroin.

General Nazarov has his own theory.

Nazarov said the agency finds it hard to fight drugs with a staff of only 350.

Nazarov says nobody can tell this without a precise knowledge of how much narcotics arrive in and leaves the country.

with trademarks that often boldly display their names and points of origin.

Latif, the governor of Kunduz province, to the drug trade.