LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: Afghanistan is expected to produce record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new UN survey to be released Monday.

The report is likely to renew debate about the $600 million U.S. counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been dogged by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government.

"I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy," said William Wood, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report's overall findings. "And I think that we are finding one."

Wood said the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods should be intensified, but he added that spraying poppy crops with herbicide remained "a possibility." Afghan and British officials have opposed spraying, saying it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

While the report found that opium production dropped in northern Afghanistan, Western officials briefed on the assessment said cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers to grow poppies.

Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade, opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public support by protecting farmers' fields from eradication, according to American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from traffickers they protect.

In Taliban-controlled areas, traffickers have opened more labs that process raw opium into heroin, vastly increasing its value. The number of drug labs in Helmand rose to roughly 50 from 30 the year before, and about 16 tons of chemicals used in heroin production have been confiscated this year.

The Western officials briefed on the report said countrywide production had increased from 2006 to 2007, but they did not know the final UN figure. They estimated a countrywide increase of 10 to 30 percent.

The new survey showed positive signs as well, officials said. The sharp drop in poppy production in the north is likely to make the countrywide increase this year smaller than the growth in 2006. Last year, a 160 percent increase in the Helmand opium crop fueled a 50 percent nationwide increase. Afghanistan produced a record 6,100 metric tons of opium poppies last year, 92 percent of the world's supply. Here in Helmand, the breadth of the poppy trade is staggering.

A sparsely populated desert province, Helmand produces more narcotics than any country on earth, including Myanmar, Morocco and Colombia. Rampant poverty, corruption among local officials, a Taliban resurgence and spreading lawlessness have turned the province into a narcotics juggernaut.

Poppy prices that are 10 times higher than those for legal crops have so warped the local economy that some farmhands refused to take jobs harvesting legal crops this year, local farmers said. And farmers dismiss the threat of eradication, arguing that so many local officials are involved in the poppy trade that a significant clearing of crops will never be done.

U.S. and British officials say they have a long-term strategy to curb poppy production modeled after successful, decade-long efforts in Pakistan and Thailand. About 7,000 British troops are gradually extending the government's authority in some areas, they said. And the U.S. Agency for International Development is mounting a $250 million alternative livelihoods program in southern Afghanistan, most of it in Helmand.

On Wednesday, Rory Donohoe, the director of the alternative livelihoods program in southern Afghanistan, attended the first "Helmand Agricultural Festival." The $100,000 U.S.-financed gathering in Lashkar Gah was an odd cross between a Midwestern county fair and a Central Asian bazaar, designed to show Afghans an alternative to poppies.

Under a scorching sun, thousands of Afghan men meandered among booths describing fish farms, the dairy business and drip-irrigation systems. A generator, a cow and a goat were raffled off. Wizened elders sat on carpets and sipped green tea.

Some wealthy farmers seemed genuinely interested. Others seemed keen to attend what they saw as a picnic.

Afghans gave the fair mixed reviews. Haji Abdul Gafar, 28, a wealthy land-owner, expressed interest in some of the new ideas.

Saber Gul, a 40-year-old laborer, said he was too poor to take advantage. "For those who have livestock and land, they can," he said. "For us, the poor people, there is nothing."

A string of bombings and gun battles reported around Afghanistan killed 41 people and left at least six wounded, including two foreigners, The Associated Press reported from Kabul.

A suicide car bomber attacked two Land Cruisers in the capital Saturday, said Ali Shah Paktaiwal, chief of criminal investigations in the city. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemerai Bashary, said two foreigners and four Afghans were wounded. He said he did not know the nationalities of the foreigners or the extent of their injuries.

In Kandahar Province, insurgents attacked a police patrol with a bomb and then opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, said a police officer, Umar Khan. Eight police officers were killed and one was missing, he said.

Elsewhere in Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed two Afghans guarding a convoy carrying NATO supplies, said the provincial police chief, Sayed Aqa Saqib.

In Ghazni Province, the police killed 24 militants, said a local police chief, Ali Shah Ahmadzai. Five insurgents were also killed in Badghis Province, since Friday, a police official there said. In Helmand Province, Afghan soldiers shot and killed two suspected Taliban fighters planting a roadside bomb, said a police officer, Ghulam Wali.