US LAUDS VENEZUELA DRUG FIGHT DESPITE FLIGHT BAN

CARACAS - U.S. officials Friday praised Venezuelan anti-drug
efforts and pledged closer cooperation despite President Hugo Chavez's
decision to deny U.S. drug surveillance planes access to Venezuelan
airspace.

Thomas Umberg, deputy director of the anti-narcotics office, who led a
15-member U.S. team that met with Chavez, noted an upsurge in cocaine
and heroin seizures by Venezuelan officials in recent months.

"Venezuela, in particular, is very focused on this issue," he told a
news conference at Miraflores presidential palace.

He added that White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey and a
team of Justice Department officials would visit Venezuela within the
next 30 days to further anti-narcotics cooperation.

Venezuela borders the world's largest cocaine exporter, Colombia, and
according to U.S. officials is a transit route for about half of the
cocaine headed for Europe and 10 percent of the cocaine headed to the
United States.

Umberg avoided reporters' questions on Chavez's refusal to allow U.S.
aircraft to fly over Venezuela to and from new anti-narcotics air
bases in nearby Aruba and Curacao following the recent handover of
U.S. military bases in Panama.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt in 1992,
said Thursday that the U.S. officials would be "wasting their time" if
they tried to persuade him to change his mind over the U.S. flights.