Vienna, Austria ? More than ever before, authorities waging the global war on drugs are up against real insurgents.

Worldwide, illicit cultivation of opium and coca – the raw materials for heroin and cocaine – is rising as militants in Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar consolidate their control of key drug-producing areas, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warns in a new report.

“The explosion of narcotics in those areas is explained by their presence and the protection they offer,” agency chief Antonio Maria Costa told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

“I believe that slowly these people, although politically motivated at the beginning, are becoming a kind of organized crime,” he said. “Money tends to stick to fingers, and a big lump of money becomes very problematic.”

In its World Drug Report 2008 being released Thursday, Costa’s office calls the glut of opium and coca “a very recent surge” and draws a direct link to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, armed revolutionaries in Colombia and several ethnic insurgency groups in Myanmar.

Afghanistan had a record opium poppy harvest in 2007, nearly doubling worldwide illegal opium production. U.N. experts say 80 percent of the poppy was grown in five southern provinces where Taliban fighters profit from drugs.

“In the southern areas controlled by the Taliban, counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency must be fought together,” Costa said.

Officials say the expanding role of insurgents in the global narcotics trade is especially worrisome because their drug profits are used to bribe police and government authorities and to help finance terrorists.

And insurgent activity is making it increasingly difficult for the U.S., Britain and others to deliver cash incentives to farmers as an enticement to not grow lucrative opium or coca, Costa told the AP.

Wherever the security situation slows down or thwarts efforts to distribute incentives, “cultivation gets out of control,” he said.

In South America, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is waging an insurgency, coca production shot up 27 percent last year, the report said. Most of that coca came from regions under the insurgents’ control, “just like in Afghanistan,” Costa said.

“Recent major increases in drug supply from Afghanistan and Colombia may drive addiction rates up because of lower prices and higher purity of doses,” he warned.

Colombia’s government has put the FARC on the defensive, driving the rebels deeper into the jungle and killing or capturing several top commanders. Signs that the group is in disarray have fueled hopes that officials may find it easier to control cultivation, Costa added.

But Southeast Asia poses a fresh challenge: Opium cultivation there rose in 2007, reversing six years of decline.

In Myanmar, also known as Burma, it increased 29 percent. The U.N. said most of the gains were in southern Shan state, where rebels seeking autonomy from Myanmar’s ruling junta have clashed with the military.

“Some of the world’s biggest drug-producing regions are out of control of the central government,” Costa said.