COLOMBIA REJECTS COCA-KILLING FUNGUS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The government says it has no intention of testing or
even further studying a fungus promoted by the United Nations and the
United States as a potential "silver bullet" for killing coca plants.

Environment Minister Juan Mayr said the U.S. State Department "told lies"
when it reported last week that Colombia had agreed to field-test the
fungus before deciding whether to it use against coca plants, the source of
cocaine.

"We will not accept the introduction of any foreign element, which is what
they have offered us under the name Fusarium oxysporum," Mayr told The
Associated Press in an interview. "We have told them to forget it."

Mayr said a team of scientists from the government, Bogota's National
University and several prestigious private institutes examined the plan
presented several months ago under U.N. auspices, and rejected it
categorically.

They warned of possible mutations and harm to people and the environment in
the delicate Amazon basin, where most of Colombia's coca is grown.

Based on expert opinions, "I think it makes no sense to permit the entry of
an external biological agent that can have an adverse effect on our
ecosystems," said Mayr, who has the authority to reject the use in Colombia
of any herbicide based on the fungus.

Mayr said the government would welcome funding for research into
alternative biological controls based on "blights" or even insects present
in the coca-growing areas.

He said there was no evidence that Fusarium oxysporum -- an outbreak of
which ravaged coca in Peru in the early 1990s -- exists in southern
Colombia, where most of the nearly 300,000 acres of coca are grown. Nor
does the government plan to look for it further, Mayr added.

Last week, a State Department spokesman said reports that Colombia had
agreed to a U.S.-funded testing program were accurate. The New York Times
reported July 6 that the Colombian government had agreed to such a program
under U.S. pressure.

Washington's leverage is undoubtedly growing as Colombia prepares to
receive the bulk of a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package President Clinton
signed Thursday for stemming an explosion of cocaine production in the
South American country.

The aid, much of it for military helicopters, would permit increased aerial
eradication of coca crops using chemical herbicides already approved by
Mayr's ministry. Leftist rebels entrenched in the coca regions have impeded
fumigation, often firing on crop-dusting planes.