However, the cultivation of cannabis has replaced poppies in some parts of the country including Balkh province.

BBC: Why Afghanistan may never eradicate opium

Balkh Air boasts only an old British-built, 80-seat BAC 1-11 jet registered in Liberia, acquired by Barnett-Jolley and resold to Dostam.

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Balkh Air has plans to acquire a Boeing, and extend services to Istanbul, Moscow and other cities in Iran and Central Asia.

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It has fired off letters to the International Air Transport Association de-manding that the body instruct members not to grant Balkh landing rights.

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"We don't have a report that poppy has been cultivated on a large scale, " says Rahim Rahman Oghly, the provincial head of the counter-narcotics department in Balkh.

BBC: Why Afghanistan may never eradicate opium

Kabul is not amused by the arrival of Balkh Air.

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At a tomato paste factory supported by US aid agency USAID in Balkh she spoke Shakira, a woman worker grateful for her job and with growing confidence in the security situation.

BBC: Nato 'impatient' for Afghan progress

Based in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Air is the idea of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam - who rules much of the country's northwest - and British entrepreneur Christopher Barnett-Jolley.

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