U.S., Panama to hold talks on antidrug center

PANAMA CITY, April 27 (Reuter) The conversion of the U.S. Howard Air Force
Base in Panama into an international antidrug centre should proceed as
planned despite the upcoming retirement of a key negotiator, a U.S. Embassy
official said Sunday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said John Negroponte, the U.S.
coordinator for the Panama bases negotiations, would be retiring from the
Foreign Service in June, but this should not affect ``routine talks'' set for
Monday.

Negroponte chairs the Interagency Working Group on Panama, which is reviewing
a possible post1999 U.S. presence.

Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares had said Panama would not enter
into talks with the United States to negotiate a military presence in Panama
in the next century. But he said the Washington could keep Howard air base at
no cost for use as an antidrug centre.

The United States is to turn over control of the Panama Canal and withdraw
all troops and bases by Dec. 31, 1999, in accordance with bilateral canal
treaties.

A career diplomat with at least 35 years of service, Negroponte served as
U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan administration at a time when
the Central American nation was a staging ground for American efforts to
topple the leftist Sandanista regime in neighbouring Nicaragua.

In addition to serving as ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte has been
ambassador to Mexico and the Philippines, an assistant secretary of state and
deputy national security advisor under Colin Powell.