China is to strengthen its support for anti-drug operations in Laos following the South East Asian country's declaration on Tuesday that it is to end its 200-year-old poppy cultivating history.

At a national conference hled in Vientiane on prohibiting the planting of opium poppies, Laotian Prime Minister Bounnhang Vorachith said the flower's cultivation had come to an end in his country.

As part of the opium-producing "Golden Triangle", which also includes Myanmar and Thailand, Laos produced up to 160 tons of opium a year at its peak.

Since the 1990s, China has supported the Laotian government's anti-drug efforts by providing funding, technology and other favorable conditions for Laotian opium poppy growers to cultivate alternative crops.

Zhang Xinfeng, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Public Security, said at the conference in the Laotian capital of Vientiane that China will continue to support Laos in consolidating the achievements of the ban on opium poppy planting.

Source: Xinhua