BRUSSELS, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - NATO's top commander in Europe called Monday for a decisive assault by international forces on drug trafficking in Afghanistan, a major source of funds for the Taliban.

'The current counter-narcotics effort is not effective. NATO must step up to this task,' US General John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told a seminar in Brussels on the situation in Afghanistan.

'I'm not talking about crop eradication but about destroying the ability by Taliban to buy material for IEDs (improvised explosive devices), the ability by Taliban to buy the trigger.'

Craddock said he would discuss the issue with defence ministers from the 26-member alliance when they meet in Budapest later in the week.

He has in the past called for a more direct participation by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in fighting the drugs traffic in Afghanistan, which produces 92 percent of the world's opium and heroin.

NATO has held back in the past from taking a direct role in action to eradicate poppy fields for fear of antagonising farmers who derive their income from the crop.

'I will explore any avenue to convince the political leaders of NATO this is a moral duty to protect their forces,' Craddock said.

'There is an Afghan narcotics team, but very small, nascent. It has to be generally covered in operation. I asked US and UK people in charge how long would it take to have that Afghan team doubled in size. They said two to three years. I think we cannot afford two to three years at this level of subsidising insurgency.'

He said that he had not asked for a precise mandate but thought there could be 'tactical adjustments' to the use of ISAF troops on the ground.

Besides eradication, he said, the 'other pillar' of the counter-narcotics struggle was to attack the distribution network, which involved dismantling laboratories and intercepting transport of the drugs.

'According to figures that are not mine, the narcotics business is about a four billion dollar (three billion euro) industry, of which one billion stays in Afghanistan, of which the US says about 100 million dollars goes to subsidise the insurgency.'