PASTRANA OFFERS ASSURANCES ABOUT COLOMBIAN AID REQUEST

UNITED NATIONS -- President Andres Pastrana of Colombia insisted Monday that
despite his government's request for a huge new infusion of aid from abroad,
the United States would not be drawn more deeply into Colombia's 40-year
fight against leftist guerrillas.

"The times of intervention are over," Pastrana said in an address to the
United Nations on the opening day of the General Assembly. "These are times
of cooperation."

In an interview, Pastrana sought to reassure Americans about the Clinton
administration's deepening commitment to Colombia, saying military aid and
training would be channeled mainly to special units like army battalions
being created to fight guerrillas who support the drug trade.

Pastrana indicated that his government had decided not to ask the United
States for sophisticated attack or transport helicopters. Instead, he said,
Colombia will seek American authorization to buy such aircraft with its own
funds.

Colombia will seek U.S. aid to strengthen its radar capabilities and
refurbish or replace many of its air force jets as part of a stepped-up
effort to intercept planes involved in the drug trade flying into and out of
the country, Pastrana said.

He said that, for the first time, Colombia has joined Peru in trying to
shoot such planes out of the sky in order to deter the traffickers. American
officials confirmed that the new policy took effect last year.

The Pastrana administration is seeking at least $3.5 billion in
international aid over the next three years to carry out a wide-ranging
strategy to deal with leftist and rightist insurgents, a surging drug trade
and a faltering economy.

Colombian officials hope that the brunt of that aid will come from the
United States, and they are using Pastrana's visit to New York and
Washington this week as a busy diplomatic sales tour that will include
meetings with President Clinton, congressional leaders and others.

Privately, Colombian officials did not deny that their target for American
help is well above the $1.5 billion that White House officials cited last
week as the high end of what they have considered providing to Colombia over
the next three years. The United States is giving Colombia $287 million in
the fiscal year that ends this month, according to State Department figures.

In the interview, Pastrana seemed to have no quarrel with the notion,
widespread in Washington, that his year-old government is in trouble.

"It has been a difficult year," he said, wearily, in a hotel interview.

But Pastrana pointedly challenged the American perception that the most
serious new turn in Colombia's troubles is the growing alliance between drug
producers in the south and the leftist guerrillas there.

American officials said the Pastrana administration hopes to get at least
$775 million in loans from international financial institutions like the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and that the total could
rise to as much as $1.5 billion. But despite talk of "international
cooperation," the officials said, Colombia will turn to the United States
for almost all of the remainder.

Discussing details of his military aid request for the first time, Pastrana
said he would not ask the United States to provide the Colombian army with
advanced UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to use as troop transports, as American
officials expected. Instead, he said he would seek American authorization to
purchase as many as 15 aircraft and arm at least some of them for use
against the guerrillas. Such arms generally include small machine guns and
rocket launchers.

The shift -- which officials said would also involve using smaller UH-1N
helicopters to transport a new American-trained anti-drug army battalion --
would probably mean less American scrutiny on the Colombian military's use
of the helicopters as gunships against the guerrillas.