BOLIVIAN GOVERNMENT TO MEET COCA PROTESTERS

LIMA - Bolivia stepped back from the brink of violent social conflict with
talks due to start yesterday in the capital, La Paz, between the government
and protesting coca growers.

In negotiations to hold the talks, coca growers, led by Evo Morales, a
militant union leader and congressman, agreed to clear road blocks set up
to protest about the US-sponsored eradication of their crops, a government
spokesman said.

In return, the government has withdrawn some 7,000 troops from the tropical
Chapare area - once the main coca-growing region - 200 miles south-east of
the capital.

"There is political will on both sides to reach an agreement," the
spokesman said. "But what is not in discussion is coca eradication. We will
be talking about how we can help coca growers with more aid and other
measures."

The Chapare coca producers - some 40,000 - want the government to halt its
eradication programme, suspend a drug-trafficking law and withdraw troops
from the region. The deadline for an agreement is May 21.

The government has also agreed to suspend indefinitely its plans to chop
down 1,700 hectares of illegally grown coca in the Yungas area outside La Paz.

Coca eradication has been a cornerstone of Bolivia's attempt to clean up
its image as a drug-trafficking centre and attract massive US aid. But the
eradication of some 70,000 hectares of leaf - the raw material for cocaine
- - has deprived impoverished farmers of their livelihoods and caused much
unrest.

At least 10 people died in clashes between police and Chapare coca farmers
last year.

President Hugo Banzer's government has been besieged by protests and
strikes in recent weeks, as groups of workers stepped up their protests
about what they see as the state's failure to keep its promises -
including, they say, halting privatisation, raising pay and rehiring
dismissed public workers.

Seven lawmakers held a hunger strike last month to support the unions and
protest about alleged excessive force used by police when they broke up the
demonstrations of the coca growers, who arrived in La Paz last week after a
15-day march from the Chapare.

Protesters have called for Mr Banzer, a former military dictator who ruled
in the 1970s, to stand down immediately rather than wait for mid-2002
elections.

Deteriorating economic conditions, allegations of corruption and social
unrest have further undermined Mr Banzer's grip on power.