COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT WILL MEET WITH REBELS

Negotiations: He Says Getting Help In Stamping Out Drug Trafficking Is Key
To Ending The Civil War.

Bogota,Colombia-President Andres Pastrana said Thursday that ending
the civil war that has ravaged his country for nearly 40 years depends
on the rebels' willingness to help stamp out drug trafficking in areas
under their control.

Pastrana's assessment came as he prepared to open talks with the
leftist rebels. The United States has strengthened his position by
offering help in increasing military and police power.

Pastrana, who took office five months ago, is slated to meet leaders
of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's
most powerful insurgency, Thursday in the remote jungle town of San
Vicente del Caguan. The government evacuated security forces from an
area as big as Switzerland to allow the talks to take place, as the
rebels demanded.

In an interview at the Narino Presidential Palace on Tuesday, the
43-year-old president noted that American aid has so far gone largely
toward supporting police efforts to halt drug trafficking, mostly
through fumigation. Pushed by conservative Republicans in Congress,
the United States more than tripled aid to Colombia recently, to $289
million this year from $88.6 million last year.

This week, State Department spokesman James Rubin announced that a
midlevel State Department official, Philip Chilcola, had secretly met
with FARC leaders in Costa Rica to discuss the rebels' recent
declarations of willingness to eliminate drug crops in areas they control.

"The first enemy of peace is narco-trafficking," Pastrana said
Tuesday. "If the FARC takes the decision to eradicate drug crops,
they'll do it. Because they definitively have the influence to carry
it out."

Pastrana reiterated earlier criticism of American policy as relying
almost exclusively on police tactics to fight drug dealing, and said
that some in the U.S. Congress, Washington plans to spend $10 million
on crop substitution in drug-producing regions, but $9 million of the
money will go to Peru and Bolivia.

"In the U.S. Congress, there are those who believe that only through
repressive, policing measures can you put an end to this business,"
Pastrana said. "I maintain that for the first time ever, there's a
different window of opportunity. And it's that the guerrilla group is
saying it would agree to eradicate drug crops."

The meeting is unfolding against a backdrop of intensifying violence
in a war that has torn this country apart for decades. Last week, the
FARC took advantage of a temporary cease fire declared by a right-wing
paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, to launch an all-out attack on
his home base in the Nudo de Paramillo region.

At least 30 people were killed, including a 3-week-old baby and a
3-year-old child. Some victims died after being dismembered, and were
castrated afterward. Others were beheaded. Only 11 of the dead were
identified.

For several days, the fate of Castano remained uncertain, with the
rebels claiming to have killed him. On Sunday, however, Castano
contacted a radio station in Medellin to say he was alive.