BOLIVIA'S COCA LEADER GIVES DEADLINE

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The leader of Bolivia's coca leaf farmers has thrown
his support behind the nation's new president but warned a lack of quick
progress in reducing overwhelming poverty in the nation could lead to a
resumption of the protests that ousted the previous government.

Coca farmer Evo Morales, an opposition congressman, says President Carlos
Mesa's philosophy is very similar to the socialist thinking behind his own
political party.

But Mesa, a former journalist, has yet to state publicly his position on
the issue of coca leaf, the base ingredient of cocaine.

Morales and the coca leaf farmers he represents are staunchly against a
U.S.-backed government program to eradicate the crop, arguing that the
crackdown has unfairly deprived thousands of their livelihoods.

Bolivian law permits coca farmers to cultivate limited amounts of the crop,
as long as it is used for tea or chewing.

"Within a month, he has to start giving some clear signs," Morales told The
Associated Press on Tuesday. "If not, once again, the people will take to
the streets."

Mesa is struggling to reunite South America's poorest nation, where
unemployment is at 12 percent and many Bolivians earn about $2 a day.

Sitting in front of a cloth in the shape of a coca leaf on the wall that
said "Evo, President," Morales said he is happy to help authorities fight
the illegal drug trade - as long as they focus on netting traffickers he
says are inside Bolivia's Congress.

As for the coca leaf, Morales said production should be increased, so the
crop can be exported for legal uses, such as toothpaste, gum and shampoo.

"I have offered to create a drug-fighting alliance," Morales said. "But
coca is not a drug within the Aymara and Quechua (indigenous) cultures."

Morales was the top rival of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who
resigned Friday after the deadly demonstrations. In last year's elections,
Sanchez de Lozada won with just 22.5 percent of the vote, edging Morales,
who finished second. The final vote went to Bolivian lawmakers, who chose
the millionaire mining magnate over the coca leader.

In an earlier news conference Tuesday, Morales congratulated the protesters
for pushing Sanchez de Lozada out of office.

"Finally, after so many years, we toppled the symbol of neo-liberalism, of
corruption, of the political mafia," Morales said.

The protests were sparked by opposition to Sanchez de Lozada's plan to
export Bolivia's natural gas.

On Tuesday, Mesa faced a new challenge from supporters of the project.
Civic leaders and businessmen in Tarija, a southern Bolivian state that is
home to most of the nation's underground natural gas reserves, rejected his
plans to hold a referendum on the idea. They demanded that the government
move ahead with plans to export gas to the United States and Mexico.

Thousands of residents of Tarija marched on the plaza of the provincial
capital to protest the referendum. Local officials demanded that the
government move ahead with the project, arguing that those living in the
region should have the right to make decisions about the future of the gas.

"Evo sells coca, Tarija sells gas," Hector Lenz, the vice president of
Tarija's civic committee, told the crowd, referring to Morales.