Nato to take fresh steps against Afghan drug trade

BUDAPEST (AFP) - Nato nations struggled Thursday to agree new steps to combat opium production in Afghanistan by hunting down drug lords and laboratories in an effort to halt the flow of funds to Taliban insurgents.

Defence ministers, meeting in the Hungarian capital Budapest, heard a plea from Nato’s commander and Afghanistan’s defence minister for their nations to take on the drug challenge but differences were not immediately overcome.

“No decisions came in that regard,” said chief Nato spokesman James Appathurai, after the ministers studied the alliance’s most-ambitious ever operation, ahead of broader talks with partner nations in the mission.

“There was a very appropriate analysis of the varying challenges in relation to doing this,” he said. “And they agreed at the end of that discussion: a) to continue it in a larger format, and come back to it again tomorrow morning.”

He insisted that there had been “no dispute, but a proper analysis of the very, very important issues related to this.”

A Nato official said privately that the debate had been “very animated” and that ministers would hold bilateral meetings in an effort to seal an agreement.