HUGO BANZER OPENS BOLIVIA DRUG MEETING

The Bolivian president, Hugo Banzer, has opened a two-day
international conference on the illegal drugs trade in the eastern
city of Santa Cruz.

Delegations from Europe, the United States and Latin America will
share ideas on combatting drug-trafficking.

As the conference began, Mr Banzer announced that after an intensive
three-and-a-half year offensive, all illegal coca plantations in the
Chapare region had been eradicated.

The government said only two-thousand hectares of illegal coca
plantations remained in Bolivia, down from forty-five-thousand when Mr
Banzer took office in 1997.