BUDAPEST, Hungary - Revelers at Hungary's first pro-marijuana rally and rock concert were pelted with tomatoes and eggs yesterday, forcing the festivities to end early.

Police kept pro-marijuana demonstrators and their opponents apart to prevent clashes, but the anti-drug campaigners hissed, booed and threw objects, forcing the rally to end an hour early.

Hungary has one of the toughest anti-drug laws in Europe.

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Britain's anti-drugs tsar warned on Thursday that central European countries in line for European Union membership are major transit routes to western Europe for heroin and other illegal drugs.

``We are very concerned with the countries which will be the side door of Europe in the near future,'' Keith Hellawell, who heads anti-drug efforts in Britain and reports to Prime Minister Tony Blair, said.

``In the past year we've had more heroin coming up through the Balkan route than we can stop,'' Hellawell told a news conference in Budapest, the Hungarian capital.

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A team from Hungary has conducted research into marijuana and established a link between the drug and asthma which could help develop new treatments for respiratory-related illnesses.

Back in the mid-1970s US professor Donald P Taskin found that "recent studies demonstrated significant, acute bronchodilation in healthy young men after they smoked marijuana".

Now research in Hungary, Italy and the US indicates that while some asthma sufferers are prone to coughing when exposed to elements of the drug, others seem to be less affected by such irritation when lung muscles are tensed.

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BUDAPEST, Hungary -- The FBI is opening its first permanent office abroad in Hungary, a move that will allow agents to work with foreign police in an investigative task force, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Four FBI agents will help Hungarian police investigate organized crime - particularly involving Russians - trafficking in drugs and weapons, money laundering and other crimes, the U.S. Embassy in Hungary said in a statement.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said in Washington that the agents will be allowed to carry guns but will not have law enforcement powers. They will accompany Hungarian police on raids, searches and interrogations.

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Drug dealing and narcotics consumption in Hungary has been the topic of many reports in the media in recent times.

Such reports are never welcomed by the Government, even if the reports feature the capture of criminals, because they highlight the growing trend in illegal activities at, excuse the pun, the grass roots level.

Prime Minister Orban once said, "Hungary is no longer a country struggling with the problems of a change in regime. It is a country and society very similar to today's Western European countries." This has its good points and bad points.

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