Brussels, 26/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe appealed to the European Union on Sunday for help in fighting the drug situation in his country by participating in the funding of a reafforestation project for the areas where coca is grown, evaluated at $480 million per year (the duration of the plan was not specified). "I expect a great deal from Europe and expect to see how much it can provide to finance the reconversion of drug crops into tree plantations as a substitute to coca", Mr Uribe told Agence France Presse (AFP). He said that he had spoken of this reafforestation project in coca areas with the French President, Jacques Chirac, after the first round of the Colombian presidential elections in May. To date, the United States has funded the fight against drugs with $2 billion since 2000, in the form of military material for eradicating the coca plantations through air crop spraying. Colombia is the leading drug producing country, with 580 tonnes of cocaine and 6 tonnes of heroin annually, which are exported essentially towards the United States and Europe.