July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is obstructing efforts to fight the opium trade and failing to act against drug lords because it fears losing political support, a former U.S. counter narcotics official said.

Efforts to eradicate opium crops are also being undermined by Afghanistan's corrupt justice system and the reluctance of NATO and the Pentagon to help, Thomas Schweich, the State Department's former coordinator for counter narcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan, wrote in the New York Times.

``While it is true that Karzai's Taliban enemies finance themselves from the drugs trade, so do many of his supporters,'' Schweich wrote. ``The fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs, and as long as the Kabul government is dependent on opium to sustain its hold on power.''

Karzai rejected Schweich's assertions, saying his government had eradicated or greatly reduced drug production in more than half of the country's provinces, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Karzai's spokesman Ahmed Razi didn't immediately respond to an e-mail request sent out of normal business hours for comment and a telephone call to his office was unanswered.

Afghanistan provides more than 90 percent of the world's supply of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, and the Taliban will generate at least $100 million from this year's opium crop, according to the United Nations.

Terrorist Training

Revenue from the sale of illegal drugs is being used to finance terrorist training bases across the border in Pakistan, buy weapons and explosives for suicide bombings and import the chemicals needed for drug refining, the UN says.

Schweich said Karzai opposed the use of chemical spraying from aircraft to destroy opium poppy crops.

``He claimed to fear that aerial eradication would result in an uprising that would cause him to lose power,'' Schweich wrote in an article for the July 27 edition of the New York Times Magazine, which is on the newspaper's Web site today.

The Afghan government showed a lack of will to prosecute corrupt officials and drug lords for fear of losing political support, he said.

``Narco-traffickers were buying off hundreds of police chiefs, judges and other officials,'' Schweich wrote. ``Narco- corruption went to the top of the Afghan government.''

The U.S. Defense Department and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also ``resisted the anti-opium offensive'' fearing it could alienate the local population and saw ``counter narcotics as other people's business to be settled once the war fighting is over.''

Afghan Corruption

When asked to comment on the article, the State Department acknowledged corruption remained a problem in Afghanistan.

``We're working with the democratically elected leader who has shown to us he's committed to developing democratic institutions in Afghanistan,'' acting deputy spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters in Washington yesterday. ``We're going to continue that effort with him.'

Afghanistan's 2007 opium harvest rose 38 percent to a record 8,200 metric tons from 6,100 tons a year earlier, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Land cultivated to grow the drug increased by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares (476,700 acres) and cultivation in 2008 will be ``broadly similar,'' it said.

The Taliban regime, which enforced Islamic law on Afghanistan until it was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, banned opium production in the country. The drugs trade is now a ``massive source of revenue'' for the insurgents who tax farmers at 10 percent, according to the UNODC.

U.S. Strategy

The U.S. follows a five-pillar strategy to combat the opium trade, according to Gallegos: ``alternative development; eradication; interdiction; law enforcement operations and justice reform.'' During the fiscal year 2006, the U.S. spent more than $420 million combating Afghan narcotics.

During his two-year tenure, Schweich advocated aerial spraying as the most effective means of cutting production and said a quarter of the poppy crop needs to be destroyed to deter farmers from planting it the following year.

The Afghan government has called for greater emphasis on tackling the traffickers and encouraging farmers to grow other crops instead of punishing them by destroying their livelihood.

The Senlis Council research group, which focuses on security and narcotics issues and has offices in London, Brussels, Paris and Kabul, says forced eradication can boost the insurgency by turning villagers against international forces.

The opium trade is equivalent to about 30 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product and millions of Afghans benefit directly or indirectly from it, according to a report published in February by the World Bank and U.K. government.

It called on the international community to invest more than $2 billion over 10 years in rural Afghanistan to wean farmers from their dependence on opium production.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 24, 2008 22:20 EDT