MOSCOW - Ridding Afghanistan of all remaining terrorists and combatting the drug trade are two of the main tasks facing his nation's new government, Afghan Interior Minister Younis Qanooni said Friday during a visit to Russia.

"We believe that the preservation of a stable and calm atmosphere in our country is in the interests not only of Afghanistan but also of the entire world community," Qanooni said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Qanooni said that Afghan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, had already signed a decree banning the sowing of narcotic plants and narcotic manufacturing. He urged Russia to help set up a "belt of security" around Afghanistan to combat drug-smuggling.

Afghanistan became the world's leading source of opium, from which heroin and morphine are produced, in the early 1990s and remained so under the Taliban. The Islamic extremist militia took power in 1996 and was ousted by U.S.-led forces late last year.

A Taliban edict in 2000 banning poppy cultivation reduced production somewhat, but U.N. officials are predicting a giant harvest this year. As the Taliban grip on power slipped under the pressure of U.S. bombing, farmers returned to their traditional ways.

Karzai's U.N.-brokered government announced the ban on poppy production last month, but many fields had already been sown.

Qanooni said Afghanistan will need help from neighboring countries in cutting off the routes smugglers use to spirit the drugs from Afghanistan to Western Europe, where most are headed.

Russian First Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Yuri Vorobyov announced Friday, after meeting with Qanooni, that Russia would help Afghanistan set up a fire service. On Thursday, Russia agreed to provide training for Afghanistan's police force and to cooperate in fighting terrorism and organized crime.

Russia, which supported the U.S.-led anti-terror operation, has been eager to build close ties with the new Afghan government, and numerous Afghan officials have visited Moscow in recent weeks, seeking support for rebuilding their shattered country. Karzai is expected to come to Moscow on March 11-12.