Rumsfeld Urges Europe to Curb Afghan Drug Trade

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, called on Europe to provide a "master plan" to Afghanistan to help curb its massive drug trade, through which heroin has flooded Europe and Russia and fuelled the resurgence of the Taliban.

On a surprise visit to Kabul yesterday, Mr Rumsfeld said it would be "cheaper" to aid Afghanistan's effort to eradicate poppy growing rather than deal with the effects of the drug in the west. "It seems to me that it is important for them [Europe] to recognise that it is a lot cheaper ... for them to assist the Afghan government in providing a master overall plan for dealing with the counter-narcotic effort," he said.

Mr Rumsfeld landed in Afghanistan hours after a US-led raid against a Taliban stronghold in the south of the country killed 30 insurgents. Mr Rumsfeld is in Afghanistan to discuss with the president, Hamid Karzai, the resurgence of anti-government violence, in which more than 600 people, most of them suspected rebels, have died in the past two months.

The raid occurred in a volatile district of Helmand province. "Early this morning a joint Afghan-coalition raid resulted in the death of an estimated 30 extremist fighters," Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence told Reuters. The US bombing raids are not without controversy. This week villagers said civilians had been killed and injured during an offensive in the southern province of Uruzgan.

The talks will also focus on plans for Nato to take over the command of the international security forces in the south from US forces in the coming weeks.

British, Dutch and Canadian troops are already deployed. There are signs of nervousness in Washington that key allies would pull their troops out of the country. Pacifists in Italy's coalition government are threatening to vote this month against keeping its 1,300 soldiers in Afghanistan.

The defence secretary, Des Browne, announced earlier this week that the British force in southern Afghanistan will be increased to about 4,500 soldiers to challenge "the impunity of the Taliban".

On his last visit to Kabul in December 2005 Mr Rumsfeld said US troop levels would fall from 19,000 to 16,000 by this summer.