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KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai declared a "holy war" on Afghanistan's runaway narcotics industry Thursday, calling for international aid to counter a threat he said was more dangerous than any faced by his country in more than 20 years of war.
Two days after being sworn in as the country's first elected president, Karzai opened a conference on U.S.-sponsored plans to crack down on a trade supplying most of the world's heroin.
Karzai also suggested Taliban militants were funding their insurgency with drug profits and warned elders and officials from across the country to stop groups of smugglers from poisoning its development.
"Opium cultivation, heroin production is more dangerous than the invasion and the attack of the Soviets on our country, it is more dangerous than the factional fighting in Afghanistan, it is more dangerous than terrorism," Karzai said. "Just as our people fought a holy war against the Soviets, so we will wage jihad against poppies."
Cultivation of opium poppies has skyrocketed since a U.S. campaign drove the Taliban from power three years ago, fueling concern that billions spent on the effort to stabilize and reconstruct the country could prove in vain.
A recent U.N. survey found that cultivation rose nearly two-thirds this year to a record 324,000 acres. Bad weather and disease kept production from setting a record, although at 4,200 tons it still accounted for 87 percent of the world's opium supply.
Karzai, armed with a popular mandate from a landmark Oct. 9 presidential election, has said that countering narcotics will be the top priority in his five-year term.
To soften the blow of eradication, a "cash-for-work" program will also soon employ 125,000 people in three key provinces, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad announced at the conference.