BUSH BACKS COLOMBIA ON TRADE

President Bush said yesterday that he will push for the renewal and
expansion of a regional trade agreement sought by Colombia to boost its
economy and provide alternative jobs for people involved in illegal drug
cultivation and trafficking.

"Absolutely . . . I'll be pushing it," Bush told reporters before he sat
down for a 45-minute meeting with Colombian President Andres Pastrana at
the White House. "I'm a free-trader."

But while he will "be glad to help Colombia in any way to make the peace"
and to bolster its economy through trade, Bush said, he will decline an
invitation from Colombia's largest guerrilla group to observe its peace
negotiations with the government. "This is an issue that the Colombian
people and the Colombian president can deal with," he said.

Both sides declared themselves pleased with yesterday's meeting, Pastrana's
first at the Bush White House. Pastrana briefed Bush on the status of Plan
Colombia, his government's military and social development program to
eradicate hundreds of thousands of acres of coca and heroin poppies, the
raw materials of cocaine and heroin.

The plan calls for the Colombian army to defeat opposing armies of leftist
guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary forces who control drug-producing
areas, allowing the government to provide security and development aid for
the local populations. The United States has contributed $1.3 billion to
the effort, primarily for military training and equipment.

Despite widespread acknowledgment of the high volume of Colombian drug
exports to this country, the U.S. military involvement has strong critics
who question the Colombian army's human rights record and who fear that
U.S. involvement could escalate. But the Bush administration has voiced its
support for continuing aid, and it is expected to allot substantial funds
for Colombia in its budget.

During his four-day visit here, Pastrana sought to refocus the discussion
over U.S. involvement in Colombia away from drug trafficking, guerrilla
wars and human rights. Instead, he emphasized the importance of increased
trade and foreign investment to his country's long-term stability. He won
Bush's support for renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act, a 1991
program due to expire in December.

Colombia also wants the pact, which eliminates U.S. tariffs on 6,000
products from the Andean region, expanded to include textiles, apparel and
other leading exports. Without the agreement, Pastrana has said, Colombia
could lose hundreds of thousands of jobs to exports from Caribbean
countries that benefited from a separate trade deal last year.

Emerging from its worst recession in 60 years, Colombia has a 20 percent
unemployment rate, and Pastrana has said that the only way to keep more
Colombians from turning to drug cultivation or joining the guerrillas and
paramilitaries is to provide them with jobs in a strong economy. A senior
Bush administration official said that Pastrana also "talked about his
government's plans to attract more investment in the energy sector."
Colombian exports to the United States totaled $7 billion last year, nearly
twice the value of U.S. exports to Colombia.

Bush, who said it was "my honor to welcome a friend of our country to the
Oval Office," said he and Pastrana had also discussed efforts to reduce
demand for drugs in the United States. "I explained to the president that
we're fully aware of the narcotics that are manufactured in his country but
also told him that many of them wouldn't be manufactured if our nation
didn't use them. And we've got to work together to not only help Colombia,
but help our own country," Bush said.

In brief comments to reporters after the meeting, Pastrana said he had
suggested that the United States participate in a group of foreign
observers monitoring his government's talks with the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, the country's largest guerrilla group. "We think it's
important," Pastrana said.

The European Union and several Latin American countries plan to participate
in a March 8 meeting with the guerrilla organization, known by its Spanish
initials FARC, and both the United States and Cuba are invited. But the
United States has refused all contact with the FARC since the group
acknowledged killing three American humanitarian workers in 1999.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice attended Bush's meeting with Pastrana. It was conducted in
English, which Pastrana speaks fluently. But Bush ended the pre-meeting
photo opportunity and question session by shooing reporters out of the Oval
Office with a shout of "Adios."