HONDURAS RATIFIES U.S. PACT ON DRUG FIGHT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) -- The Honduran Congress has ratified an
anti-drug pact with Washington that will allow U.S. forces to patrol
Honduran waters and airspace, a legislator said Thursday.

The convention will allow the U.S. Coast Guard to board ships in Honduran
waters suspected of smuggling drugs. It also allows for joint air and land
patrols, said the head of Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee, Ramon Villeda.

Since losing its Howard Air Force Base in Panama last year, Washington has
been seeking other regional solutions to monitoring and interdicting boat
shipments and planeloads of Colombian cocaine heading to U.S. consumers.

In what White House anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey has described as
plugging the last hole in Central America, the United States in April
signed an agreement with El Salvador to use the international airport of
Comalapa as a forward operating base for anti-drug agencies.

It also has accords with the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba, and
with the Andean country of Ecuador to use the naval base of Manta.