Foreign ministry officials from the three countries agreed to "improve coordination and information sharing" to counter the production and trafficking, an Afghan Foreign Ministry statement said. Officials advanced "new ideas" on cooperation, the statement said, but gave no details.

Britain is leading international efforts heavily funded by the United States to help Afghanistan crack down on a drug economy which last year produced nearly 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material for heroin.

A large part of the drugs are smuggled over the Iranian border en route to markets in Europe, and Iranian authorities say scores of its security forces have died in clashes with traffickers.