BRAZIL SAYS 'PLAN COLOMBIA' BIGGEST SECURITY RISK

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazil is dispatching thousands of troops to
its jungle border with Colombia to prevent fallout as the neighbouring
country launches an offensive against drug traffickers and rebel forces,
the national security chief said.

Gen. Alberto Cardoso, the president's chief security adviser, told Reuters
in an interview late on Monday that "Plan Colombia" -- the neighbouring
country's $7.5 billion assault on drug traffickers in rebel strongholds --
is causing major concern for Brazil.

"For Brazil, Colombia is causing the biggest worry," Cardoso said. "Our
attention is dedicated to the effects it could have on Brazil, like the
flight of guerrillas and the transfer of (drug) laboratories and plantations."

Cardoso said Brazil already has sent 6,000 troops to the Amazon border,
winding along about 1,000 miles (1,644 km) of dense jungle. Within one
year, another 6,000 troops will be sent to the region, where they will
remain until Plan Colombia has been completed, Cardoso added.

The troops normally would be stationed throughout the Amazon region.

"The army will perform a serious operation of surveillance and defence of
our territory," Cardoso said.

While Brazil has offered moral support to Colombia's peace efforts, it also
has added its voice to a growing chorus of concern among neighbouring
countries, including Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Neighbours worry that the conflict will spill over into their territory,
either in the form of refugees, cocaine production, guerrillas or drug
traffickers seeking shelter from a widely expected military offensive.

Particularly controversial has been $1.3 billion in mostly U.S. military
aid to support Plan Colombia. Under the package, U.S. military advisors
will go to Colombia to train special battalions in fighting the drug trade
and, indirectly, the leftist guerrillas who protect and profit from the
trafficking.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia said during a recent visit
by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that Latin America's biggest
country was not as committed as the United States to Plan Colombia and
would not take part in any common international action.

U.S. President Bill Clinton is due to arrive in Colombia on Wednesday to
show his support for the government efforts to end its four-decade-long
civil war.

In the interview, Cardoso said he doubted that displaced drug traffickers
and guerrillas would head toward Brazil because in the past they "have
preferred other destinations."

"But this is no guarantee, so we need planning to safeguard the border
during Plan Colombia," Cardoso said.