GORE SHUNS COLOMBIA LEADER AT MIAMI FORUM

MIAMI - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defended himself and his
government Friday against growing allegations that his political
allies supported illegal right-wing militias, an issue that led former
Vice President Al Gore to withdraw from a joint appearance.

Uribe promised to respond to concerns from Gore, who backed out of an
environmental forum in Miami on Friday. Gore's spokeswoman said he did
not want to appear at an event with Uribe until "this very serious
chapter in history is brought to a close.''

"I deplore the cancellation of the presence of Al Gore at this
meeting,'' Uribe said at a news conference, adding that he was
confident that if Gore looked closely at the events, he would conclude
that the Colombian government was doing its best to move Colombia
forward and fight drug traffickers.

"We are doing our best to explain to him and to all Americans the
changes in our country,'' Uribe told reporters in Miami. The trip
marks his first visit to the U.S. since the allegations of
paramilitary links have reached his inner circle.

An opposition lawmaker in Colombia has alleged that Uribe let
paramilitaries use his own property for meetings and killings while
governor in a northern state in the mid-1990s.

Considered terrorist groups by the U.S. government, the paramilitaries
are responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's long-
running civil conflict. Many of the group's commanders are wanted in
the U.S. on charges of exporting hundreds of tons of cocaine.

"I have never had links to the paramilitary,'' an angry Uribe
reiterated Friday. He stressed that the property in question belonged
to relatives, not to him, but did not directly answer whether the
paramilitaries had held meetings there.

Uribe said Friday that victims were coming forward now because his
government was creating a more open environment. "The majority of the
events occurred before my government,'' Uribe said.