PEACE COMMISSION TO INTRODUCE PROPOSAL CALLING FOR CEASE-FIRE

BOGOTA -- A peace commission this week will urge warring parties in
Colombia's decades-old armed conflict to declare a cease-fire, Colombia's
leading newspaper reported Sunday.

If accepted, the proposal would require the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC -- the nation's largest rebel army -- to renounce its
practice of extortion and kidnapping. It would oblige the government to
curb violence sponsored by paramilitaries and to halt indiscriminate
fumigation of drug crops.

The drug sprayings -- funded through part of a $1.3 billion U.S. aid
package -- are the backbone of Washington's drug war in Colombia, the
world's biggest supplier of cocaine. The sprayings are a prerequisite of
further U.S. support.