Brussels, Apr 11 (IANS/RIA Novosti): As part of a NATO-Russia project in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, counter-narcotics personnel training will be expanded within the next few years, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said.

"We cooperate effectively in the area of counter-narcotics through a training project set up by the NATO-Russia Council (NRC)," he told reporters Wednesday in Brussels , where he met with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon.

"The project has trained over 2,500 counter-narcotics personnel from across the region, including over 300 officers from Tajikistan. And we look to expand this project in the years ahead."

The NRC Counter-Narcotics project was launched in 2006 in order to build regional capacity against the threat of drug trafficking. Twenty-one NRC nations are involved in the project, as well as non-NRC contributors Finland and Ukraine.

The project is run in cooperation with the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), which acts as the implementing agency.