DUSHANBE, December 30 (RIA Novosti) - Tajik border guards received $750,000 worth of equipment Friday from the United States under the Export Control and Related Border Security Assistance (EXBS) program, the Tajik border protection committee said.

"The equipment includes computer systems, night vision devices, radiation control devices, generators, radio frequency scanners and winter gear," the committee said.

This was the first part of the $1.2-million aid package granted to Tajikistan's border guards under the program. The second part of the package will include winter and summer uniforms and will be delivered in early spring.

Tajik border guards are combating drug smugglers coming from neighboring Afghanistan. Their work intensified following the pullout of Russian border guards this year.

Authorities estimate that the harvest of opium-grade poppy in Afghanistan totaled about 4,100 metric tons in 2005.

Tajikistan as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional body also comprising Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that is working to create anti-drug safety belts around Afghanistan.

Director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Cherkesov said earlier that this strategy was not meant to isolate or blockade the country.