US and Japan pledge anti-drugs mone

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Wednesday, April 1, 1998 Published at 16:09 GMT 17:09 UK 
 
World: S/W Asia

US and Japan pledge anti-drugs money to Burma

The United States and Japan have pledged almost four-million-dollars to
Burma to help the authorities there implement a five-year poppy eradication
project in the northeast. 

Burma is one of the world's biggest producers of opium, an extract of the
poppy plant. 

It's the first direct grant by the United States to Burma since the military
seized power in 1988. 

It was announced at the end of an anti-narcotics seminar in the Burmese
capital, Rangoon, organised by the United Nations Drug Control Programme and
the Burmese and Japanese governments. 

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service