By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul
Afghanistan's opium production has doubled since 2005
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says the amount of opium produced there has doubled in the last two years.
It says Helmand province is now the biggest single drug-producing area in the world, surpassing whole countries such as Colombia.
Afghanistan now accounts for more than 93% of the world's opiates.
Despite billions of dollars of aid and tens of thousands of international troops, the report says 193,000 hectares of opium poppies are being grown in Afghanistan.
'Insurgency link'
"The results are very bad, terrifyingly bad, because cultivation has increased by 17% to an historic level," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Office on Drugs and Crime.
"No other country beside China in the 19th Century ever had such a large amount of land dedicated to illegal activities.
"The province of Helmand in the south has cultivated more opium than in the rest of Afghanistan.
"It has become the largest single entity in terms of both production and cultivation," he said.
Despite the overall increase, twice as many provinces are now drug-free in northern and central Afghanistan.
The report says growing opium poppies is now closely linked to the insurgency and the instability in the south.
And what is to be done? The report recommends more determined efforts to bring that security.
It urges the government to get tough on corruption, which it says is driving the drugs trade and it lists poor governance, a weak judiciary and failing eradication programmes for these new frightening record levels.
Opium Poppy
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released Monday, the opium produced in Afghanistan has doubled in the past two years, reaching record highs. The United Nations' report determined that 93% of the world's opium is now produced in Afghanistan, up 1% from last year.

In 2007, 193,000 hectares of land in Afghanistan were dedicated to opium poppy cultivation, representing a 17 percent increase over 2006. In addition, the yield per hectare was up from last year, due to favourable weather conditions. In 2007, opium yields were 42.5 kg per hectare, while in 2006 yields were 37.0 kg/ha. Overall in 2007, Afghanistan produced 8,200 tons of opium, an amount 34 percent greater than in 2006.

This marks the sixth consecutive year that production has increased despite the United States' US$600 million counter-narcotics program in Afghanistan. When commenting on the report’s overall findings, William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, said, "I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy, and I think that we are finding one." He refers to the possibility of such enhanced U.S. efforts including spraying poppy crops with herbicides. This proposal has been opposed by both British and Afghan officials in the past.