BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAYS MORE MILITARY AID TO COLOMBIA POSSIBLE

BOGOTA, Colombia The first top-level Bush administration delegation to
visit Colombia said Friday the United States may increase its military
assistance to security forces battling drug trafficking but ruled out U.S.
backing for counterinsurgency warfare.

"President Pastrana's government is engaged in a struggle that matters to
everyone in this hemisphere," said U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

Beyond cutting the flow of cocaine and heroin to the United States,
Grossman said the United States must support South America's second-most
populous country because it is a "fellow democracy," with more than dlrs 11
billion in bilateral trade, including dlrs 3.5 billion worth of Colombian
oil exports last year.

Despite State Department criticism of rebel abuses in a safe haven granted
to them by Pastrana three years ago, Grossman said the United States firmly
supports the peace process and sees only a negotiated solution to end
Colombia's 37-year war.

The three-day visit paved the way for a trip to Colombia next month by U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and comes as the Bush administration is
assessing its policy toward Colombia, which is embroiled in a civil war
fueled by cocaine and heroin trafficking.

Senior U.S. government officials gave assurances during a breakfast with a
small group of foreign correspondents that Washington was not considering
providing purely counterinsurgency aid to the Colombian military.

But the officials, who met with Pastrana on Wednesday, said more aid could
be provided for Colombian troops who are trying to eradicate drug
plantations and processing labs, which are guarded and taxed by the rebel
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and a right-wing paramilitary group,
the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

Under a dlrs 1.3 billion aid package passed by Congress during the Clinton
administration, U.S. Green Berets have trained thousands of Colombian
counternarcotics troops, and dozens of Huey and Blackhawk combat
helicopters are being delivered.

Critics call the aid a veiled counterinsurgency effort being fought under
the guise of battling drugs - and one that could unsettle peace talks.

U.S. officials insist rebels are not Washington's primary target, but
acknowledge the aid also attempts to weaken them financially. "The (rebels
and paramilitaries) are financed by drugs. We need somehow to cut off their
ability to finance themselves," one of the senior U.S. officials said at
the breakfast.

Grossman called Colombian human rights monitors "courageous people," and
urged the police and military to do a better job of protecting them. Dozens
of rights monitors have been assassinated in recent years, mostly by the
paramilitaries.

U.S. officials also acknowledged that assistance to human rights groups, to
former coca farmers and for justice reform - the so-called soft side of
U.S. aid for Plan Colombia - need to be implemented faster.

Grossman defended the aerial fumigation of drug crops - the linchpin of the
U.S.-backed drug eradication efforts. He said it was harmless and
challenged critics to come up with independent scientific testing that
would prove their claims that it is poisoning people and the environment.