POWELL SAYS U.S. WILL INCREASE MILITARY AID FOR COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 4 -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today
that the United States would increase military assistance to Colombia,
asserting that its war on leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitary
groups -- and on their narcotics trafficking -- was part of the Bush
administration's campaign against terrorism.

The aid, more than $500 million a year, would be used for drug eradication,
support for military and police forces and renewal of support for Colombian
narcotics-interception flights that rely on intelligence from American spy
planes. Such flights were suspended last year after a plane carrying
missionaries was shot down over Peru.

The new aid will put Colombia roughly on a par with Afghanistan and Pakistan
as a recipient of American military and antidrug assistance, administration
officials said.

In a one-day trip to this Andean capital city, Secretary Powell met with
Colombia's new president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, who was elected last summer
after pledging a crackdown on violent groups that rely on drug money for
support. Mr. Uribe is also pressing for a more aggressive campaign of
eradicating coca fields than his predecessors.

After more than three decades of civil war, various antigovernment groups
engaged in the drug trade control most of Colombia's vast expanse of
mountains and farm valleys. But rights groups have accused the Colombian
military of fighting those forces with too much reliance on rightist
military squads organized by landlords.

"We are firmly committed to President Uribe and his new national security
strategy," Secretary Powell said. "We are going to work with our Congress to
provide additional funding for Colombia."

In all, the United States has spent $1.8 billion on antinarcotics measures
and military and law enforcement aid to Colombia since 2000.

The administration is asking Congress for $537 million in the current fiscal
year, up from $411 million last year, according to the ambassador to
Colombia, Anne W. Patterson.

In a reflection of the American economic interests here, the requested sum
includes nearly $100 million to help secure a 500-mile oil pipeline in
eastern Colombia that transports 100,000 barrels a day for Occidental
Petroleum of Los Angeles. Guerrilla groups have repeatedly attacked the
pipeline.

Next year, the United States will have 60 of its own Special Operations
forces and intelligence operatives to help train Colombian forces to guard
the pipeline, Ambassador Patterson said.

Secretary Powell, saying he would seek even more money in the next fiscal
year, expressed satisfaction with his visit, which included a tour of
narcotics eradication equipment at a military airport here. He said it had
given him "ammunition" to persuade skeptics not only in Congress but also
within the administration's budget office. "I am very impressed by what I
have seen," he said after his tour.

Addressing the issue of terrorism within Colombia, the secretary said it no
longer made sense to insist on separating it from the battle against
narcotics, because they were linked as threats to democracy. Asked if he
worried that America's involvement in Colombia might lead to a Vietnam-like
quagmire, the secretary, who fought in Vietnam, said there was no
comparison.

"I don't see this in Vietnam terms," he said, adding that Colombia's
antigovernment groups should not be "romanticized" as "some sort of charming
freedom fighters." He did add, however, that the helicopters being supplied
by the United States were "remarkably familiar."

The secretary's visit, though brief, carried symbolism for a region
increasingly beset by instability and eager for attention from the United
States, which is seen here as preoccupied by its efforts against terrorism
elsewhere. Indeed, Secretary Powell was supposed to have visited Colombia
last year, but his visit was canceled because of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Another visit was canceled earlier this year.

Colombia's importance for the administration is underscored by its holding
of the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, where Washington
has sought its support for the campaign against Iraq.

Secretary Powell said, however, that he had been unable to persuade Mr.
Uribe to exempt Americans serving in Colombia from any human rights
prosecutions by the International Criminal Court. The Bush administration,
which has refused to join the court, has sought such exemptions from
countries where Americans are serving.