DRUG WAR RE-EXAMINATION URGED

BOGOTA, Colombia - President Andres Pastrana, one of Washington's closest
allies in the global war on drugs, called Thursday for a review of that
struggle, saying it has produced few victories.

"The conclusions are not good," Pastrana said in a rare talk with foreign
journalists ahead of next week's visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"The conclusions are that drugs are still the first-or second-biggest
business of mankind."

Pastrana said he still hopes for a negotiated end to Colombia's civil war
and believes developed countries have done little to stem the drug use that
is fueling the conflict. He urged President Bush to organize an
international narcotics conference.

"Clearly we must also make an evaluation - and not only of the policies of
fumigation and interdiction," Pastrana said.

He described a global narcotics industry worth $500 billion. Drug use is on
the rise in the United States, and drug lords are seeking out new markets
in Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Pastrana said the United States and Europe should stem the laundering of
drug money and control the export of chemicals used in Colombia to process
cocaine.

He also urged the United States to re-establish intelligence-sharing with
Colombia's air force about suspected drug flights. The program was halted
following the accidental shootdown of a U.S. missionary plane over the
Peruvian Amazon in April.

"I think we can truly hit the heart of the business through interdiction,
and not simply through fumigation," Pastrana said.

The fumigation of drug plants by U.S.-provided crop-dusters is the linchpin
of Washington's $1.3 billion counternarcotics policy in Colombia. But the
spraying has come under fire amid allegations that it endangers both health
and the environment, and that it hurts peasant farmers who grow coca to eke
out a living.

The 47-year-old president gave no indication that he would backtrack on the
spraying during his last year in office, but said he wanted to focus on
large-scale coca plantations.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and their
enemies, the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia, earn huge profits by guarding and taxing coca and poppy
plantations that provide much of the world's cocaine and most of the heroin
used in the United States.

The millions of dollars in drug revenue has allowed the FARC and the
paramilitaries to expand their forces and better arm themselves, further
destabilizing Colombia.

Despite the glacially slow pace of peace talks begun with the FARC three
years ago, Pastrana said he would leave office satisfied.

"I tell you, Andres Pastrana was elected for one purpose: To try, by all
legal and constitutional means, to consolidate a peace process," he told
reporters. "And for the first time, we today are sitting at the table even
with all the difficulties."

Pastrana said he has not decided yet whether to renew rebel control over a
huge southern safe haven he granted the FARC three years ago. The safe
zone, which the FARC allegedly is using to stash kidnap victims and stage
military attacks, expires next month.

Pastrana said he plans to discuss trade issues with Powell during his visit
on Tuesday and Wednesday. Colombia wants a renewal and broadening of the
U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act, which expires in December, Pastrana said.

ATPA aims to develop legal alternatives to drug production in Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru by giving duty-free status to the region's
exports, such as flowers, minerals, coffee and bananas.

Colombia wants to add textiles, food oils and other products.

"We've said to the Americans: Don't give us dollars. We don't want money,"
Pastrana said. "Give us trade. Give us the chance to compete."