RETHINK DRUG WAR, COLOMBIAN LEADER URGES

Andres Pastrana Will Meet The U.S. Secretary of State Next Week In Bogota

BOGOTA, Colombia - President Andres Pastrana, one of Washington's closest
allies in the global war on drugs, called Thursday for a review of that
struggle, saying it has produced few victories.

"The conclusions are not good," Pastrana said in a talk with foreign
journalists ahead of next week's visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"The conclusions are that drugs are still the first-or second-biggest
business of mankind."

Pastrana said he still hopes for a negotiated end to Colombia's civil war.
He also said the United States should re-establish intelligence- sharing
with Colombia's air force on suspected drug flights, and urged President
Bush to help organize an international narcotics conference.

"Clearly, we must also make an evaluation - and not only of the policies of
fumigation and interdiction," Pastrana said.

Washington suspended helping Colombia and Peru track down drug flights
after the accidental shootdown of a U.S. missionary plane over Peru in April.

Pastrana said the suspension "has allowed a lot of drugs to pass over our
territory because there is no control of our air space."

He urged a resumption, saying: "I think we can truly hit the heart of the
business through interdiction, and not simply through fumigation."

The fumigation of drug plants by U.S.-provided crop dusters is part of
Washington's $1.3-billion counternarcotics policy in Colombia. The spraying
has been criticized amid allegations it endangers health and the environment.

The president gave no indication that he would backtrack on the spraying
during his last year in office, but said he wanted to focus on large-scale
coca plantations.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and their
enemies, the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia, earn huge profits by guarding and taxing the coca and poppy
plantations that provide much of the world's cocaine, and most of the
heroin used in the United States.

Pastrana said the U.S. and Europe should stem the laundering of drug money
and control the export of chemicals used in Colombia to process cocaine.

Despite the glacially slow pace of peace talks begun with the FARC three
years ago, Pastrana said he would leave office satisfied.

"I tell you, Andres Pastrana was,elected for one purpose: to try, by all
legal and constitutional means, to consolidate a peace process," he said.
"And for the first time, we today are sitting at the table even with all
the difficulties."

Pastrana said he plans to discuss trade with Powell during his visit to
Bogota on Tuesday and Wednesday.