SUMMIT LEADERS AGREE ON ANTI-DRUG ALLIANCE

Leaders of 34 American nations agreed Saturday to form an anti-drug
alliance despite concern at the move from Republican members of the U.S.
Congress.

The alliance will be launched with negotiations beginning in Washington
next month.

Brought together by the Organization of American States, it will have as
its centerpiece the region's anti-drug czars to evaluate and report on drug
fighting efforts in each member country, including the United States, the
world's largest drug market.

U.S. officials have said the body could eventually replace a 12-year-old
U.S. program that makes U.S. military and economic aid to other countries
conditional on Washington's annual certification of compliance with
anti-drug efforts.

The certification program, required under U.S. law, has been deeply
resented by many Latin American countries, which say it is punitive and
ignores drug demand created by U.S. users.

Two U.S. lawmakers Friday responded to the plans for the alliance, which
was agreed at the Summit of the Americas of 34 leaders from all the
Americas except for Cuba, which was not invited.

``The alliance, while welcome, cannot become a substitute for
certification,'' said Rep. Benjamin Gilman of New York, chairman of the
House International Relations Committee, and Rep. Dennis Hastert, chairman
of a House subcommittee on national security.

``The OAS could also become yet another forum for drug-producing and
transiting nations to join those who blame the (drug) problem solely on
U.S. demand, ignoring the effect that massive amounts of cheap, pure drugs
from their own countries have on that very same demand,'' they said in a
statement.

White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told reporters in
Santiago Saturday the alliance would complement the certification program
and there were no plans for now to scrap the program, which would require
congressional action.

In addition, attitudes over who is responsible for drug abuse -- the
consumers in the United States or foreign producers -- have become less
polarized, he said.

This was demonstrated in discussions on the issue at the Summit of the
Americas in Santiago, which Berger contrasted with the first such summit in
Miami, in 1994.

In Miami, he said, ``We (alone) spoke to the drug problem. It was kind of
an us-versus-them discussion.''

He said as much as open trade and the evolution of democracy were now the
hemisphere's agenda so too was the drug problem. ``As these countries
become both producer and consumer countries some of these old distinctions
between us and them break down,'' he said.

He quoted Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo as calling drugs the main
threat to the rule of law in the hemisphere in Saturday's discussions. The
anti-drug plan was adopted in a national security session of the summit.

Berger said President Clinton proposed at the session that the OAS require
member nations to disclose weapons sales or purchases.

Berger said this was a confidence-building move to promote greater
awareness of the capabilities of other nations.