Vietnam has reported a significant rise in the number of drug-related arrests.

Public Security Ministry officials say that some eighteen-thousand people were arrested for drugs offences in 1998 -- an increase of over a-third on the previous year.

Nearly fifty of those detained were eventually sentenced to death, which roughly equals the number of death sentences passed for drug crimes over the previous five years.

Correspondents say the increase in drug-related problems is seen by some analysts as a by-product of the increased affluence of the urban population.