OFFICIAL URGES BOOST OF COCA ERADICATION

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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Colombia's interior minister said Wednesday that
his country should double its coca eradication effort, a day after a
UN report said cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine jumped 8
percent last year.

Aerial fumigation of coca fields reached a record last year in
Colombia as authorities used 20 U.S.-supplied airplanes to spray
nearly 345,000 acres.

Despite that, the UN estimated that cultivation rose in 2005 for the
first time in five years, to 330 square miles, or more than 211,000 acres.

Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt urged a doubling of efforts, even as
he tried to downplay the UN report, telling W Radio, "If we didn't
fumigate as much as we did, Colombia today would be submerged in a sea of coca."