TEHRAN -- Head of the State Welfare Organization Mohammad Reza Rahchamani said here Friday over 70,000 addicts have been rehabilitated in the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over the past (Iranian) year.

Speaking in the pre-sermon speeches during the Tehran Friday prayers, Rahchamani said his organization has provided job opportunities to a number of the ex-addicts who had managed to quit their habit, IRNA reported.

Currently, there are about 200 NGOs active in the rehabilitation of drug addicts while adding that some 700 clinics treating addicts are also run by the private sector.

The state Welfare Organization are looking after 11,000-12,000 street children in special centers, he said adding that his organization is developing programs to shelter and support the runaway girls and women who have fallen pray to addiction.

He noted that two million people consume narcotics in the 65-million-strong Islamic public country who account for three percent of the country's population.

Opium has the top consumption rate, with heroin coming second, the official said, adding there was urgent need to contain heroin consumption, which is mostly carried out through injection, in the face of rising threats of AIDS and hepatitis spread through shared needles.

His comments backed the Wednesday remarks by Ali Asghar Zebardast, Governor General of Hamedan, who warned about the decrease in the age of drug abusers describing it as "a serious menace to the nation".

Zebardast said that the shift in the drug consumption patterns and the spread of the drug abuse among the young adolescents is sounding the alarm for official.

"Officials should know that the prevalence of drug usage is a well-orchestrated ploy by enemies against the Iranian nation." Zebardast said.

Iran straddles major international transit routes of drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan, better known as the "golden crescent", for lucrative markets in Europe, Persian Gulf and Central Asia.

The campaign has won plaudits from the international community, but the Islamic Republic has regularly complained that it needed more than conciliatory messages in the fight which Iran found itself alone.

Iran has tried many methods to check the rage, but the country's borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan -- stretching to more than 1200 kilometers mostly along deserts and mountainous regions -- have proved permeable.

The campaign has gone dauntless either on far-flung mountains and deserts or inside cities against heavily-armed major drug traffickers and their petty accomplices who use highly complicated methods to dodge police.