U.S. TO CLOSE PANAMA ANTI-DRUGS AIR BASE IN MAY

PANAMA CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force will move its Latin
American counter-narcotics operations to Florida from Panama on May 1
in a step that could complicate anti-drug surveillance and
intelligence gathering in the region, a senior U.S. military official
said on Tuesday.

"The counter-drug aircraft will complete their mission (in Panama) on
May first ... and will be relocated to McDill Air Force Base in
Tampa, Florida. After that there will be no aircraft at all at Howard
Air Force Base (in Panama)," Air Force Col. Greg Trebon told reporters.

"The difficulty from Florida is the challenge of distance ... It will
be much more difficult for all of us to deal with narcotraffickers
coming out of Colombia, Peru, and the nations of the Andean ridge,"
Trebon added.

In September, the United States and Panama abandoned more than two
years of negotiations to extend the Dec. 31, 1999 deadline for the
U.S. military to remove all troops from Panama and hand over control
of the canal to the Panamanian government as stipulated in the 1977
Torrijos-Carter Treaty.

The two countries had been negotiating to turn Howard Air Force Base
- -- located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal -- into an
anti-drugs centre with intelligence-gathering facilities, air power
and 2,000 U.S. troops, plus soldiers from other countries.

In July, however, Washington said the talks reached an impasse when
Panama would not offer more than a possibly renewable contract for
four years for the counter-narcotics centre.

The United States has since looked to other locations in the region --
such as Florida, Puerto Rico and several other Latin American
countries -- to house the centre.

Panama, which is located at the hub of two oceans and two continents,
has been home to the U.S. military since it seceded from Colombia in
1903.