TOUGHER LINE ON COLOMBIA REBELS LIKELY

Knight Ridder Newspapers BOGOTA, Colombia - Pressure is mounting on
Colombia to abandon peace talks in favor of a military solution to
its nearly four-decade war against drug-funded Marxist guerrillas,
analysts say.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC by its Spanish
initials, is already on the State Department's global list of 29
terrorist groups, in part because of attacks on U.S. oil interests in
Colombia.

Now, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States have
provided the opportunity for hard-liners in both Washington and
Colombia to shift the focus on the FARC from an insurgent movement to
a terrorist organization funded by illicit drug sales.

"Members of Congress at a very senior level are connecting the link
between drugs and terrorism," said a Republican congressional
committee staffer involved in U.S. policy toward Colombia who spoke
on condition of anonymity. "As we focus our policy on Colombia, that
is going to become a very important part of the debate."

The United States has earmarked more than $1.3 billion in mostly
military aid to Colombia in the last two years as part of Plan
Colombia. Because of legislation prohibiting involvement in
counterinsurgency efforts of foreign countries, the aid is limited to
strengthening the Colombian military's anti-narcotics efforts.

Viewing the FARC as a terrorist group could pave the way for the
United States to shift from an anti-drug focus in Colombia to a more
military-oriented, counterinsurgency position against "terror
groups," said Arlene Tickner, director of the International Studies
Center at the University of the Andes in Bogota.

But a U.S. official in Colombia insisted that "our policy continues
to be counternarcotics."

This week, President Andres Pastrana extended until Jan. 20 a peace
effort that cedes to the rebels a large swath of land that the
Colombian army cannot enter.