US TRAINING COLOMBIANS FOR ANTI-DRUG STRUGGLE PRODUCTION TO COCA LEAF
PRODUCTION; LEAD PROSPECTS UNCERTAIN

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) A key ingredient of the Clinton
administration's program to defeat Colombian drug traffickers is U.S.
help in training up to 3,000 military personnel and 500 police
officers before the end of the year, American officials say.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright exchanged views on the U.S.
program with Colombian President Andres Pastrana on Friday night and
planned another meeting today.

Albright arrived here Friday, three days after the administration
announced a two-year, $1.6 billion program to assist in the anti-drug
fight and help Colombia in other ways.

Officials who accompanied Albright here from Washington told reporters
the first 950 recruits for an anti-narcotics battalion should be ready
for duty by the end of this month, along with 200 police.

An additional two battalions are expected to be ready by the end of
the year, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. All
told, the U.S. training effort will involve 500 Colombian police as
well.

According to the plan, the battalions will provide security while
police arrest narcotics traders, carry out crop eradication and
dismantle drug-processing laboratories.

Pastrana was the host of a dinner for Albright in this port city
Friday night that also was attended by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian
author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

According to some estimates, Colombia's production of coca leaf, the
raw material for cocaine, rose 140 percent between 1989 and 1998 when
it reached more than 80,000 tons. There was no opium poppy production
in Colombia a decade ago, but now the country has become a major
grower, with a reported output of 61 tons in 1998.

With Pastrana at her side before the dinner, Albright was asked
whether Colombia can turn the tide on narcotics production given its
poor record over the past decade.

She noted that ambitious programs by Bolivia and Peru have achieved
major successes in recent years, and she said Colombia should be able
to do the same.

''But it clearly takes hard work and determination,'' she
said.

Albright said she was very impressed by the plan Pastrana unveiled
four months ago to deal not only with drug traffickers but also with
Colombia's long-running civil war and its declining economy.

Colombia's war has gone on for 35 years and has claimed 30,000 lives.
Pastrana took office 17 months ago declaring that peace was his
highest priority. But negotiations to end the war have progressed
slowly. The latest round of talks began Thursday.

One reason for the exploding cocaine production is an alliance between
drug traffickers and the main guerrilla movement, known by their
Spanish initials, FARC.

The guerrillas control about one-third of the nation, earning huge
payoffs from protecting traffickers' operations and taxing peasants
who grow illegal drug crops.

Other key player are rightist paramilitary units that often work in
cooperation with the Colombian Army. A senior U.S. official said the
paramilitaries are responsible for most of the human rights violations
in the conflict.

Albright planned to travel to Panama from Colombia this afternoon.