Opium poppies almost gone, says Vietnam

Officials in Vietnam say they have eradicated 97% of opium-producing poppy fields over the past decade.

However, an agriculture ministry official Hoang Van Dong, said a programme to help ethnic minority farmers -- many of whom live in the economically poor northern highlands -- replace poppies with other cash crops has proven less successful.

Reports say Vietnam has spent 320 billion dong ($22m) on drug eradication since 1992, including $7.8m on poppy eradication.

Vietnam is included in the United States' list of 24 which are producing and trafficking drugs.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service