roximately note: primarily Mekong and tributaries;
2,897 additional km are intermittently navigable by craft drawing less
than 0.5 m

Pipelines: petroleum products 136 km

Ports and harbors: none

Merchant marine: total: 1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 2,370
GRT/3,110 DWT ships by type: cargo 1 (2002 est.)

Airports: 51 (2001)

Airports - with paved runways: total: 9 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to
2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2001)

Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 42 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to
1,523 m: 15 under 914 m: 26 (2001)

Military Laos

Military branches: Lao People's Army (LPA; including Riverine Force),
Air Force, National Police Department

Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age (2002 est.)

Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,365,027 (2002 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 734,945
(2002 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 64,437
(2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $55 million (FY98)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 4.2% (FY96/97)

Transnational Issues Laos

Disputes - international: demarcation of boundaries with Cambodia,
Thailand, and Vietnam is nearing completion, but with Thailand, several
areas including Mekong River islets, remain in dispute; ongoing disputes
with Thailand and Vietnam over squatters

Illicit drugs: world's third-largest illicit opium producer (estimated
cultivation in 2001 - 22,000 hectares, a 5% decrease over 2000; estimated
potential production in 2001 - 200 metric tons, about the same as in
2000); potential heroin producer; transshipment point for heroin and
methamphetamine produced in Burma; illicit producer of cannabis; growing
methamphetamine abuse problem

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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Lebanon

Introduction

Lebanon

Background: Lebanon has made progress toward rebuilding its political
institutions since 1991 and the end of the devastating 16-year civil
war. Under the Ta'if Accord - the blueprint for national reconciliation
- the Lebanese have established a more equitable political system,
particularly by giving Muslims a greater say in the political process
while institutionalizing sectarian divisions in the government. Since the
end of the war, the Lebanese have conducted several successful elections,
most of