ANTI-TERROR FOCUS MAY AFFECT COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The war on terrorism is echoing in Colombia, with
expectations of more U.S. military aid and less tolerance for talks with
this country's leftist guerrillas -- even though they have no reported ties
to Middle East terrorists.

But the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has gotten
itself on the U.S. State Department's list of international terrorist
organizations with killings of American citizens here and attacks on U.S.
companies' interests.

Even before last week's terrorism in New York and Washington, top U.S.
officials were criticizing rebel abuses, including alleged terrorist
training inside a safe haven President Andres Pastrana granted the FARC in
1998. The guerrilla sanctuary was supposed to boost talks to end a 37-year
civil war, but negotiations in the zone have foundered.

While expressing support for peace efforts, Washington has also been
pumping in military and intelligence aid for use against rebel and
paramilitary units involved in the drug trade.

Such aid "will be even easier to obtain now that Colombia can argue that it
needs the assistance in the name of fighting terrorism," said Carlos
Franco, a political analyst and former guerrilla leader.

Franco predicted that Washington would turn against government-rebel peace
talks altogether if any evidence surfaces of FARC ties to Middle East
terror groups -- or if the rebels carry out new attacks on U.S. interests
in Colombia.

Already, the FARC has been linked with the Irish Republican Army. Three
suspected IRA members were arrested here last month, suspected of giving
the FARC training that could be used in an urban bombing campaign.

On Thursday, police suggested a possible link with Basque terrorists
existed. Colombian police said they captured two suspected FARC members
with a partially constructed car bomb closely resembling those used by the
Basque separatist group ETA in Spain.

"There's no doubt (the FARC) has connections to other terrorist groups,"
said National Police Gen. Tobias Duran.

The U.S. firm Strategic Forecasting said last week's terrorist attacks will
likely prompt the United States to "intensify its surveillance of insurgent
groups such as the FARC."

Given the priority on responding to the terror attacks in the United
States, Washington's overall attention to Colombia and other hotspots
outside the Middle East is expected to drop.

"But to the extent U.S. officials focus on Colombia, they are going to be
less tolerant, less willing to accept that this is part of a peace strategy
to give a group they call terrorists control over a vast amount of
territory," said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue
in Washington.

FARC, a peasant-based insurgency claiming to be fighting for the poor, sees
rising U.S. drug war aid as a counterinsurgency program in disguise. The
group has declared U.S. military advisers targets and frequently bombs
pipelines and railways serving U.S. companies in Colombia.

Its rhetoric toward Washington hasn't softened since the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

On Wednesday, the FARC accused the United States of using them to justify a
"witch hunt" against revolutionary movements around the world. The rebels
also questioned Washington's right to decide "who are the terrorists and
who are not."