The US is proceeding with plans for a big crop-spraying programme to destroy opium poppies in Afghanistan, in spite of resistance from the government of President Hamid Karzai and objections from some senior US military officers who fear it will fuel the Taliban insurgency.

A US delegation will soon leave for Kabul to persuade Mr Karzai that the selected herbicide glycophate, widely used by US farmers, is safe and that trial ground-spraying should begin for the first time since the US ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.