TOKYO -- An International conference on ways of controlling synthetic drugs and opiates here Wednesday called on the international community to provide assistance to Afghanistan interim government to effectively combat the cultivation of opium poppy.

The participants stressed the need to adopt the most effective measures to curb the production and abuse of the illicit narcotic drugs which threaten the young generation worldwide.

They expressed deep concern over the rampant illegal drug abuse among the youth and called for world states officials to give priority to the drug abuse prevention measures in their programs.

The international gathering called on the countries of the world to help implement a crop substitution project in Afghanistan, the largest opiates producer in the globe.

Iranian MPs Soheila Jelodarzadeh and A'zam Naseripour are forming the Iranian delegation in the watershed meeting on drugs and ways of combatting the drug problem.

Representatives from 36 countries and six international organizations as well as number of lawmakers from different countries are attending the 2002 international drug meeting held in Japan.

The two-day forum discusses global trends concerning illicit drugs focusing on the Afghan situation, world market of synthetic drugs, production of such drugs, fight against narcotics trafficking, and ways on reduction demand for illegal drugs.

The event is being coorganized by the Federation of Japanese Parliamentarians to Fight Against Abuse of Narcotics and Amphetamine-type Stimulants, the Japanese government and the UN International Drug Control Program (UNDCP).

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who heads the Parliamentarian Federation and is now chairing the conference, is to present a summary of the discussions at the end of the event, IRNA reoported.

The international gathering is attended by representatives from Hong Kong and countries such as Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Tajikistan.

It is also attended by representatives from Belgium, Bolivia, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and the United States.

The European commission has sent delegates belonging to the International Narcotics Control Board and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

The international drug control meeting was initiated by European parliamentarians as a forum for free and informal exchange of views on international drug issues, with the first meeting held in Scotland in 1998.

The first international drug meeting was held in Britain while the next such confab is expected to take place in Australia.

As parts of its positive attempts, Afghan interim government banned earlier the cultivation of opium poppy with an aim to end traffic in the illicit narcotic drugs.

Afghanistan's interim government ordered banned cultivation of poppy in all provinces, press reports said adding that farmers ignoring the order in Afghanistan would be prosecuted.

Iranian officials drew up last year broad lines of a watershed project to encourage the Afghan farmers to cultivate food crops in their farmlands instead of the illicit opium poppy.

The crop substitution project conducted by Iran in Afghanistan's Helmand Province has come to a halt due to the developments taking shape in Afghanistan but Iran is encouraging now the international community to participate in efforts to continue the crop substitution project in the war-shattered Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a country racked by more than two decades of civil war and it is recovering from years of political unrests and a severe drought.