It seems the enormity of the problems in tackling Afghanistan's massive opium crop are finally becoming apparant to the soldiers sent in to rid Afghanistan of its only verified export crop.

British Government ministers had repeatedly declared that one of the primary tasks of the 5,700- strong expeditionary force was to help end Afghan heroin production, which supplies 90 per cent of the narcotic in Britain. But the commander of the British forces in southern Iraq insisted yesterday that his troops would play no part in destroying poppy fields, while senior British civil servants cautioned that ending cultivation may take years.