ANTI-DRUG MONEY TO TRIPLE

Peru Will Get More Than $150 Million In 2002; Flights May Resume

LIMA, Peru - The United States will triple anti-drug funding to Peru and
hopes to announce the resumption of drug surveillance flights when
President Bush visits next month, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday.

Ambassador John Hamilton told reporters that U.S. aid meant to curb drug
production and trafficking will increase to more than $150 million in 2002,
from about $50 million annually in previous years.

More than $80 million will finance alternative development programs that
help Peru's farmers switch from coca, the raw material of cocaine, to crops
such as coffee and cacao.

The rest of the aid will support interdiction, drug crop eradication and
efforts to reduce demand, including $30 million to "reinforce the fleet of
helicopters that are used in the anti-drug fight," Mr. Hamilton said. Peru
is the world's second-largest producer of coca leaf and of coca paste,
which is often sent to Colombia for refinement into cocaine. Peruvian gangs
have also begun refining cocaine for shipment to the United States.

Mr. Hamilton said the United States hopes to announce a date for the
resumption of drug surveillance flights during Mr. Bush's scheduled visit
on March 23.

The flights were suspended in April after a Peruvian air force jet, working
in coordination with a CIA drug surveillance plane, shot down a missionary
flight, killing an American woman and her 7-month-old daughter.

The CIA surveillance craft's crew members had identified the missionaries
as a suspicious flight but later realized they were not drug smugglers.
They were unable to dissuade the Peruvians from opening fire.

A senior U.S. official said in Washington on Monday that the plan to resume
the flights includes new safeguards such as increased training and
mandatory Spanish language capability for U.S. pilots and crews. The plan
still needs final administration approval.

Mr. Hamilton denied speculation in Peruvian media that the increased aid
and Mr. Bush's visit are meant to draw Peru into the civil war in
neighboring Colombia, where guerrillas and paramilitaries make money from
the drug trade. The United States is providing Colombia with $1.3 billion
to fight drugs under a program called Plan Colombia.

"To say that we're going to involve Peru in Plan Colombia or in the
Colombian conflict, that is going too far," Mr. Hamilton said in a radio
interview. "There is no hidden agenda."