New York: A US report on Thursday credited Burma with a 50 percent decline in poppy cultivation last year, but production of illegal synthetic drugs remains high.

The report said Burma’s sharp decline in poppy cultivation was accompanied by an increase in production and export of illegal synthetic drugs, which is threatening to turn the infamous Golden Triangle into an “Ice Triangle.”  “Ice” is the name of a potent form of methamphetamine.

The Golden Triangle, a region comprising Burma, Thailand and Laos, is no longer the world’s largest opium cultivation area, according to the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released by the US State Department in Washington. Afghanistan ranked No 1 in poppy cultivation and Burma ranked No 2.

“Burma’s opium cultivation has declined dramatically,” the report said in its chapter on Burma. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates a massive decrease of 83 percent over an 8-year period-from 130,000 hectares in 1998 to 21,000 hectares in 2006. Cultivation during the past year dropped from 40,000 hectares to 21,000 hectares.

There are now indications that many groups in Burma increased production and trafficking of crystal methamphetamine, the report said

“Burma plays a leading role in regional traffic of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS),” it said. Drug gangs, based in Burma-China and Burma-Thailand border areas, produce several hundred million methamphetamine tablets annually for markets in Thailand, China and India as well as for onward distribution.

During the 2006 drug certification process, Burma was one of only two countries in the world, after Venezuela, which “failed demonstrably” to meet international counter-narcotics obligations, the report said.

Referring to the military junta’s goal of complete eradication of poppy cultivation by 2014, the report said the steady decline has been due to enforcement; some alternative livelihood measures, such as crop substitution; discovery and closure of clandestine refineries, interdiction   and annual poppy eradication programs.

The UNODC estimated that Burma eradicated 3,970 hectares of opium poppy in 2006.