(STRASBOURG) - Part of Afghanistan's massive illegal opium poppy crop could be used to produce painkillers for developing countries, the European parliament suggested Thursday.

It proposed a pilot project to convert a small part of the poppy crop, which fuels the worldwide heroin trade into affordable, legal, opium-based medical drugs, under a non-binding parliamentary recommendation approved in Strasbourg on Thursday.

The painkillers could be offered to the 150 or so countries where the supply is insufficient, under a scheme drawn up by Italian liberal MEP Marco Cappato.

According to his report, turning part of the poppy cultivation over to legal use would reduce the drug funding to the Taliban, Afghan insurgents and other radical groups.

According to UN figures, 93 percent of the opiates on the world market come from Afghanistan.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund estimates that the illegal trade accounts for an estimated 40 percent of Afghanistan's GDP.

Three million Afghans, 10 percent of the population, are said to work in the sector.

The parliamentary report questioned the current strategy in fighting the drug trade which concentrates on destroying poppy crops while not helping the Afghan economy.

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