U.S. OFFICIAL CALLS FOR PERSISTENCE IN DRUG WAR

SANTA MARTA, Colombia -- After flying over blackened coca fields,
White House drug czar John Walters conceded that seizing cocaine,
destroying coca crops, and locking up drug traffickers in Colombia
have had little impact on the flow of cocaine on U.S. streets.

But in an interview with the Associated Press, Walters insisted that
Washington must stay the course with so-called Plan Colombia, a $3.3
billion, five year program mainly to train, equip, and provide
intelligence to Colombian forces spearheading the war on drugs.

"We have a history in the United States of not following through on
programs like this," Walters said Wednesday at an antidrug police base
near this coastal city after touring fumigated fields in the nearby
mountains by helicopter.

During his three-day visit, Walters also met with President Alvaro
Uribe and attended a funeral for nine police officers killed in
apparent retaliation for a drug seizure.

The U.S.-funded Plan Colombia has led to a huge increase in drug
seizures, with 48 tons of cocaine confiscated in Colombia last year
compared with 8 tons in 1999. Closer judicial cooperation has led to
extradition of 120 alleged traffickers to the United States in two
years.

Aerial eradication, a key part of the aid package in which crop
dusters spray fields of coca - cocaine's raw ingredient - with
herbicides, has drawn sharp criticism, despite its success in reducing
the area under cultivation.

The amount of cultivated coca crops across the country fell to 280,000
acres last year, from 420,000 acres in 2001 - a 33 percent drop,
officials say.

Peasants in the sprayed zones complain of health problems; rights
groups say the herbicides kill banana and yucca plants. The U.S. and
Colombian governments insist spraying is safe.

Still, Walters said Washington planned to reexamine the long-term
fumigation strategy.

One concern is whether it is cost-effective. Colombia's counter
narcotics police say 85 percent of sprayed crops are quickly
replanted, so planes must repeatedly spray the same zones.

Also, drug barons are quick to adapt. Coca farmers have begun sowing
in national parks where the aircraft are prohibited from fumigating,
or covering the plants with protective chemicals, or planting many
small areas that are difficult to spot.

Another problem is security. Though escorted by helicopter gunships,
spray planes are hit by gunfire two dozen times a month, according to
a U.S. report.

Walters said he believed fumigation remained important and effective,
but that money could be used elsewhere.

"We need to make sure other areas are well-funded, such as
interdiction," he said, referring to use of radar and spy planes to
track suspected drug-smuggling flights. Nearly 30 planes have been
forced down or destroyed on the ground by the Colombian air force this
year.

U.S. cocaine prices are unchanged, a sign there is no shortage. "Thus
far we have not seen a change of availability in the United States,"
Walters said.

He contends traffickers have tons of cocaine stored along transport
routes and draw on this stock to keep prices low.