DUSHANBE, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - Tajikistan's trade in the first half of 2007 increased by $302 million to some $1.8 billion year-on-year, the country's Statistics Service said Friday.

Tajikistan maintains economic contacts with 81 countries, including 11 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations, which account for 43.1%, or $767 million, of its foreign trade.

Overseas countries account for 56.9%, or over $1 billion, in the Tajik foreign trade.

Tajikistan's major CIS partners are Russia ($343 million), Kazakhstan ($164.5 million) and Uzbekistan ($157 million). The Netherlands, Turkey and China account for $340 million, $248 million and $101.5 million, respectively.

The impoverished Central Asian nation is precariously dependent on exports of cotton and aluminum, with its economy highly vulnerable to external shocks. Drug trafficking has been a major source of income in Tajikistan, an important transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and Western European markets.