34 NATIONS TO COORDINATE DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON (AP) - With an eye toward combating illegal drugs around the
world, leaders of 34 nations promised on Friday to work toward a more
cooperative relationship.

"We did not talk consuming nations vs. producing nations," said Barry
McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's drug policy chief. Instead,
McCaffrey said, the three-day meeting among nations was "about prevention,
treatment, interdiction, intelligence sharing." "We have learned to share
our successful strategies and coordinate our efforts to find solutions,"
McCaffrey said.

Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States,
said, "The nations of the Americas have agreed that we all share
responsibility for the drug problem and that we can be most effective in
confronting it through concerted, multilateral action."

Mexico Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said the fight against drugs demands
"international cooperation."

But Madrazo added, "The only valid international cooperation is that which
is based on respect for all peoples, their territories, their legal
systems, their forms of government, their democratic institutions and their
ways of life."

In addition to agreeing to better coordinate efforts, the leaders plan to
meet again, possibly in mid-2001, to discuss their progress.

The meeting comes on the heels of an agreement the leaders signed last
month aimed at getting together to evaluate strategies.

McCaffrey also used the event to express concern about the outcome of a
proposed $1 billion to $2 billion aid package for Colombia and its
surrounding countries. Congress has yet to agree to the deal.

"I am deeply disappointed with the emerging results," he said, adding that
the matter was still being negotiated. "The interests of the American
people will be ill-served if there are not significant resources devoted."