BRAZIL WON'T LEND SUPPORT TO COLOMBIA'S DRUG WAR

BRASILIA, Brazil -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright won support
from Brazil Tuesday for strengthening the region's fragile democracies, but
failed to enlist it behind a $1.3 billion fight against Colombian drug
traffickers.

Albright, kicking off a tour of five South American countries, said her
one-day visit to Brazil showed bilateral relations were the best in 50
years and differences in opinion "were far fewer than the areas of agreement."

But Brazil's Foreign Minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, stressed the
"autonomy" of Latin America's largest country, and said it would not
participate in the Washington campaign to help battle Colombian drug
traffickers.

"We have no intention of participating in any common international action,"
Lampreia said.

Brazil, which shares a long Amazon jungle border with Colombia, fears a
massive military assault could drag it into the country's bloody civil war
or send droves of refugees into Brazil.