RELIEVED COLOMBIA WELCOMES U.S. DRUG WAR RATING

BOGOTA, - 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," said Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto.

"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 grounds that the move would encourage
future counternarcotics efforts 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
new government of President Andres Pastrana.

But he and other officials, including respected National Police chief
Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, also 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 uncanny
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
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.