YANGON, Aug. 29 Kyodo A fresh U....

YANGON, Aug. 29 Kyodo

A fresh U.N. report suggesting a decline in opium production in Myanmar has vindicated the country's ''serious and steadfast'' antinarcotic efforts, an official pres release said Thursday.

''The UN observe is a great vindication for us. We urg those who have erroneously accused us to now join us in our fight to hindrance opium and heroin production in Myanmar,'' management spokesman Col. Hla Min said in the pres release.

The report released this week in Vienna by dint of the U.N. Office for medicine Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) said the first-ever comprehensive opium poppy inspect for Myanmar indicates production of about 828 tons of opium in 2002 which is les than the estimated production in the previous year.

''This decline is a gradation in the right direction. There is the evidence that the sway is aware of the damage caused to the nation by opium cultivation. New measures are destitutioned and expected,'' Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the ODCCP said.

The ODCCP said the joint take a view of with the Myanmar government was managemented in Shan State, in which more than 90% of the country's opium poppies are grown

It said the examine was a combination of field work forward the ground and satellite imagery, adding more than 150 surveyors visited nearly 2000 villages and measured nearly 6000 opium fields.

Last year, Myanmar produc an estimated 1097 tons of opium poppies, becoming the world's biggest farmer according to the ODCCP

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