NATO agrees to enter Afghan opium war: diplomat

NATO agreed Friday to officially take part for the first time in the fight against Afghanistan's opium trade to try to cut off drug funds from Taliban insurgents, an alliance diplomat said. "There is a formal agreement between the NATO nations to fight against drug trafficking," the diplomat said as defence ministers met in the Hungarian capital Budapest. NATO leads an almost 51,000-strong security force in Afghanistan but an increasingly sophisticated Taliban-led insurgency is undermining its efforts to spread the Kabul government's influence across the country.