COLOMBIAN LEADER ASKS WORLD TO HELP END CRISIS

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe implored the
world community Friday to make good on its pledge to fight terrorism by
cracking down on the drug trade and seizing the assets of people who
finance extremist acts in his country.

In a passionate speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Uribe coupled a call
for action with a sobering assessment of the effects of a 38-year-old
drug-financed guerrilla war, which claims thousands of lives a year.

Calling the Colombia crisis a potential risk to democratic stability in the
region, Uribe said, "We require the world's assistance to resolve it."

With Latin America's most powerful rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, protecting an estimated 300,000 growers,
Colombia has become the world's largest producer of coca, allowing the
rebels to reap up to $100 million in cocaine cash annually, Colombian
officials say.

"We cannot continue with timid, halfway actions and decisions. While we
discuss endlessly, more drugs are planted and traded by terrorism," said
Uribe, who took office last month.

"We demand effective cooperation because the violence ... is financed
through the international drug trade and is waged with weapons not made in
Colombia," Uribe said.

The United States has provided Colombia more than $1.5 billion in mostly
military assistance in the past four years to fight drug trafficking.