ECUADOR ASKS U.S. FOR $160 MILLION TO HELP CONTAIN DRUG TRADE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Ecuador is asking the United States for up to $160
million to create an economic buffer zone on its border with Colombia to
stop the drug trade from spreading, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Heinz
Moeller said.

Ecuador's wish list includes helicopters, fast boats to patrol rivers and
reconnaissance equipment to tighten control over the frontier, Moeller said.

In meetings with U.S. officials, Moeller said Ecuador needed between $30
million and $40 million a year in U.S. assistance to fund a $300 million,
four-year programme of social and economic development in its northern
border region.

Most of the funds would be spent on schools, health centers, new roads to
allow farmers to get their produce to market and alternative crops, Moeller
told a news conference.

Ecuador is bracing for the arrival of refugees from worsening violence in
Colombia, where the United States is funding an army offensive against
cocaine production protected by leftist guerrillas.

Regional Fears Of Plan Colombia

Brazil and Venezuela also fear the conflict will spill over into their
territories, and the Brazilian government does not believe the U.S.-backed
effort is in the best interest of the Andean countries or Brazil, said
Riordan Roett, a professor at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced
International Studies.

"As a general fact, Plan Colombia will be a disaster because you are going
to have a large number of people moving across contiguous borders of
Colombia, whether it be refugees, guerrillas or paramilitaries," Roett said.

He said he did not foresee a militarization of the region but added that it
was too early to tell, as the plan was not yet in place.

"Clearly, there will be a very small military presence at the beginning, and
we have no idea whether it will escalate or not," Roett said.

Washington is pumping $1.6 billion over two years into the so-called Plan
Colombia, mostly in military helicopters and training. Ecuadorean officials
fear that successful operations against illicit drugs in southern Colombia
will push the drug business over the border into their country.

Containing Coca

Moeller said Ecuador's border development strategy was aimed at preventing
the spread of plantations of coca, the raw material for cocaine, during and
after Plan Colombia.

"The only real way to stop drug production is by giving the peasants an
alternative, decent way (to earn a living)," he said at a news conference,

Most of Ecuador's northern province borders the rebel-controlled,
drug-producing Colombian region of Putumayo.

Nearly 800 Colombian refugees have already settled in northern part of
Ecuador, Moeller said.

Although most of them are not coca leaf farmers, several coca plantations
have been found and dismantled along the border, and the government fears
guerrillas have infiltrated the group, Moeller said.

Moeller said his government was strengthening its troops and police forces
along the border and would launch the development programmes next month.

Ecuador hopes to finance part of its border programme with debt for social
programme swaps with European governments.

Last month the Andean country signed a debt-restructuring agreement with the
Paris Club of official creditors. The accord allows for the negotiation of
bilateral swaps to channel funds into development programmes, Moeller said.