PANAMA, UNITED STATES AGREE TO SET UP ANTIDRUG CENTER

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) The United States and Panama have agreed to set
up a center to monitor drug smuggling in Latin America, although some
Panamanians say it amounts to turning the country over to foreigners.

The U.S.led antidrug center will be built on what is now Howard Air Force
Base, a rolling campus with nature trails and bike paths that is one of the
most beautiful U.S. military bases in Panama.

Wednesday's announcement followed street protests and months of delicate
negotiations. The minority of Panamanians who oppose the center, recalling
the 1989 U.S. invasion, say the United States is going back on its word to
pull its soldiers out of the country.

``This is a continuation of the bases,'' said Carlos Abadia, leader of the
opposition Civil Renovation Party.

Few details of Tuesday's agreement signed in Miami by U.S. diplomat Thomas
MacNamara and Panamanian official Jorge Ritter have been announced, but the
center is intended to monitor drug activity in the region after the United
States turns over its bases to Panama at the end of 1999.

``We have reached an agreement, and now we will enter into a phase in which
we will invite other Latin American countries to participate,'' Panamanian
President Ernesto Perez Balladares said, adding that Mexico, Brazil and
Colombia have been especially interested in the plan.

The president said details of the agreement would be released soon.

In Washington, the State Department said there are still ``some details
which need to be worked on before the texts are made final. The negotiators
will meet again next week for that purpose.''

Before it takes effect, the agreement requires approval by Panama's
legislature and by a majority of Panamanians in a referendum next year.

Panama and the United States began to talk about the center in 1995, but
formal negotiations began only this year.

In a small building at Howard Air Force Base, the U.S. military has been
conducting operations since 1992 similar to what will go on at the
antidrug center.

The small, windowless building known as the ``Pizza Hut'' is filled with
computers and communications equipment to monitor airplanes and ships
smuggling drugs from South America and the Caribbean toward the United
States. Those operations will remain largely intact under the center.

Neither country said how many U.S. military officials would stay on at the
antidrug center, but Panamanian news media reported Wednesday that the
number would be as high as 2,000.

Perez Balladares repeatedly has insisted the antidrug center is different
from a military presence.

A poll by the newspaper La Prensa published Monday showed 67 percent of
people surveyed approved of the center, while 25 percent disapproved. The
telephone survey of 1,182 people was conducted Dec. 1314 and had a margin
of error of 3 percentage points.