COLOMBIA GREETS U.S. DRUG WAR RATING WITH RELIEF

BOGOTA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Colombia welcomed Washington's decision to name
it as a full-fledged ally in the war on drugs on Friday, saying it hoped it
would never again be branded a "pariah" because of its lead role in the
illicit drug trade.

"This is a recognition of the sacrifice and effort that the good people of
Colombia and its institutions have made to recover our country's dignity,"
Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto said.

"We're going to fine-tune the mechanisms and take every action necessary so
that Colombia will never again be treated like a pariah in the community of
nations," he added.

Fernandez was referring to the treatment Colombia received under
scandal-plagued former President Ernesto Samper in 1996 and 1997, when the
U.S. State Department put it on a list of highly corrupt and virtual
criminal states "decertified" for failing to fight drugs.

The United States took Colombia off the list of countries deemed unworthy of
certification in 1998 but only after granting it a "national interest"
waiver on the grounds that the move would encourage efforts against the drug
trade after Samper left office in August.

Fernandez, who spoke at a news conference, hailed Friday's full
certification as "another step forward in the new stage" of ties between
Colombia and Washington, which have improved greatly under the government of
President Andres Pastrana.

In a national radio and television address late on Friday, Pastrana
applauded the U.S. certification decision and said it had lifted a "shadow
of doubt" hanging over all Colombians.

"We have recovered lost confidence," he said, adding that the U.S.
endorsement would help his government lure increased foreign investment and
rekindle Colombia's stagnant economy.

But Fernandez and other officials, including respected National Police chief
Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, criticised the annual certification process, which
some Latin Americans consider an outrage.

Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine and a top supplier of
the high-grade heroin sold on U.S. streets. But the United States is the
world's most voracious consumer of illicit drugs.

"It seems to me that certification is a process that has been politicized,"
said Serrano, a friend and close ally of top U.S. drug fighters.

Dubbed "capo catcher" in the local media because of his ability to hunt down
billionaire cocaine merchants, Serrano was named the world's "top cop" at a
meeting of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Salt Lake
City last year.

But the United States failed to certify his many successes on the front line
of the drug war when he served under Samper, even as Colombia won far more
battles than nations like Mexico, which has consistently won certification.

Despite his dislike of the process, which he calls "unilateral" and
"unbalanced," Serrano told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday that
Washington would be paying a well-deserved tribute to Colombia by upgrading
its anti-drug credentials.

"It's a way of stimulating our work," he said, adding that it would also pay
homage to the more than 3,000 Colombian police officers killed in the line
of duty since 1987.