NIGERIA RATIFIES ANTI-CRIME TREATY WITH U.S.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP)--Nigeria on Wednesday ratified a 12-year-old
crime-fighting treaty with the U.S. that includes extradition agreements
and cooperative anti-terrorism and drug efforts.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's Cabinet enacted the Mutual Legal Assistance
Treaty, which was first signed between the two countries in 1989, in an
effort to "improve our status as a country seriously committed in the
fight" against drugs, terrorism and other crimes, Women's Affairs Minister
Hajia Ismail told reporters.

Obasanjo's presidential spokesman, Tunji Oseni, said the treaty, which had
been sidelined by past military regimes that have ruled Nigeria for all but
12 years since independence in 1960, included an agreement allowing the
repatriation and extradition of criminal and terrorism suspects.

Cooperative efforts between the two countries to end narcotics trafficking
were also part of the plan, Ismail said. Nigeria was last year recertified
by the U.S. after years of sanctions for failing to tackle the
international drug trade.

The treaty must still be signed by Nigeria's House of Assembly, which Oseni
called a "mere formality."

"We have ratified the treaty today, the rest is a mere formality," he said.

Other details of the agreement were not released and U.S. Embassy officials
could not be reached for comment.

Oseni denied reports that Nigeria has begun tracking terrorism suspects
linked to Osama bin Laden. Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwende said Monday
the police were investigating possible links between religious unrest in
Nigeria and bin Laden, the prime suspect in the attacks on the U.S.

Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation - is riven with ethnic and
religious divides that frequently flare into violence.

The introduction of Islamic law, or Sharia, in a number of northern states
over the past two years has sparked a series of clashes between Muslims and
Christians that have killed thousands.

In the latest outbreak of religious fighting - just days before the U.S.
attacks - at least 165 people were killed in the hilltop city of Jos.

Oseni said Nigeria was fully behind "any fresh initiative" by the U.S. to
fight terrorism, although the Nigerian leader and President George W. Bush,
who spoke on the phone last week, had not specifically discussed whether
Nigeria would be asked to contribute to "any special force to pursue this
campaign."

In the wake of the U.S. attacks and the most recent Nigerian interreligious
fighting, the Nigerian military has been on a "state of high level of
preparedness," Oseni said.

"Given the magnitude of the crisis we face locally and internationally, we
have ordered our security agencies to be on a higher state of alert," Oseni
said, adding: "This is being done in a way that will not create tension or
apprehension" between Nigerian ethnic and religious groups.