MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - The government agencies for drug control in Russia and Iran have agreed to cooperate in combating illegal trade in narcotics and psychotropic substances. The heads of the respective agencies, Viktor Cherkesov and Ali Khashemi, today signed a cooperation memorandum outlining principal strategies for sharing information on drug-related crimes and their perpetrators.

Russian drug control officials said that before signing the memorandum, the sides had to work out common approaches to fighting drug trafficking, specifically, the distribution of Afghan heroin.

Russian officials also said their initiative to create and strengthen anti-drug "security belts" around Afghanistan had been fully supported by Iranian counterparts. Last November, Iran contributed to a Eurasian anti-drug trafficking operation, under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan).