Despite billions in U.S. antidrug aid aimed largely at eradication, Colombia's coca crop increased by 27 percent in 2007, the Associated Press reported June 18.

"The increase in coca cultivation in Colombia is a surprise and shock: a surprise because it comes at a time when the Colombian government is trying so hard to eradicate coca; a shock because of the magnitude of cultivation," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United National Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which released the report on coca cultivation.

The UNODC also reported that coca production was up 4 percent in Peru and 5 percent in Bolivia.

Cocaine production, however, did not rise, partly because coca cultivation was spread across large numbers of small plots rather than big farms. The UNODC estimated that 701 square miles of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia was dedicated to coca cultivation last year.