UNITED STATES ESCALATES WAR IN COLOMBIA

With the United States preparing to deepen its military involvement in
Colombia, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said Wednesday there are far more
cocaine- and heroin-producing crops growing in the South American country
than previously believed.

"Everywhere we look, there is more coca than we expected," Patterson told a
small group of U.S. journalists, referring to the prime ingredient of
cocaine. It was her first substantive on-the-record briefing since arriving
in Colombia a year ago from El Salvador, where she also was the ambassador.
The most recent U.S. estimate, conducted at the end of last year, showed
136,141 hectares of coca were being cultivated. That compares with the U.S.
State Department's estimate of 122,624 hectares for 1999. In addition,
Colombian police said 6,192 hectares were being used to grow poppies, from
which heroin is made.

But now drug crops have been found in areas of Colombia where none were
believed to have existed before - in eastern Vichada state and northern
Arauca state, among other places.

Washington is sending planes and helicopters to Colombia and is considering
giving more aid, atop a $1.3-billion existing package aimed against leftist
guerrillas and rival right-wing paramilitaries who allegedly tax the drug
crops that are exported to the United States and elsewhere to support their
armies.

The training of 3,000 Colombian troops by U.S. Green Berets in southern
Colombia was completed last May. But plans are envisioned to expand the
training to more Colombian soldiers in smaller batches in other parts of
the country, Patterson said.

"We don't think there is going to be a problem on the Hill with that,"
Patterson said, referring to the U.S. Congress, where some oppose U.S.
military aid to Colombia.

"The U.S. Congress would be notified if that plan goes forward."

Critics of Washington's aid said the United States is being sucked into
another guerrilla war, as in Vietnam.

It is unclear by how much the original drug-crop estimates may be short. Of
the heroin crops, Patterson said: "There is more out there than we can find
right now."

She added a very pure grade of Colombian heroin has been arriving in the
United States, particularly New York City and Philadelphia.

Patterson said the pace of fumigation will pick up "very dramatically" and
a leveling off of drug cultivation in Colombia can be expected in 18 months.

Washington made a clear sign Tuesday that U.S. participation will continue
when the House of Representatives approved $676 million to fight drugs and
advance economic and political stability in Colombia and in its
neighbouring countries.

The first of dozens of new combat helicopters provided under the aid
package are scheduled to arrive Saturday from the United States. Fourteen
more U.S. crop-dusters will also be arriving starting in September, which
will more than double the current fleet in Colombia by next March.

Some of the crop-dusters are being outfitted with night-vision devices to
enable pilots to fumigate after dark, making them less exposed to gunfire.

The crop-dusters began blanketing huge chunks of Colombian territory with
the herbicide glyphosate last December under the U.S. aid program. The
planes have been escorted by reconditioned U.S.-provided helicopters and
protected by U.S.-trained Colombian soldiers.

No U.S. citizens will be allowed to fly the army combat helicopters,
Patterson said.

"It's dangerous," she said.

"I'm under no illusion what it would mean to have an American shot down
here and no one in the U.S. is."

Reacting to complaints that glyphosate, manufactured by the U.S. company
Monsanto, is a health hazard, the U.S. Embassy will recruit 1,000
Colombians as test subjects in a toxicological study.

U.S. officials insist glyphosate, sold in the United States as a
weed-killer under the name Roundup, is safe.