COLOMBIA'S NEXT LEADER SEEKS DRUG-WAR AID

WASHINGTON, June 20 - Alvaro Uribe Velez, Colombia's president-elect, met
with President Bush today and pledged to increase his country's commitment
in the fight against drugs and terrorism, officials said.

Mr. Uribe, a former governor overwhelmingly elected by a war-weary nation
last month, asked administration officials for continued support and,
specifically, help in weaning farmers from drug crops and patrolling
regions that are currently beyond state control.

Mr. Uribe was politely received by the administration, though one senior
official cautioned that the new government must show that Colombians "are
prepared to sacrifice in their own defense."

But he met deeper skepticism on Capitol Hill. Despite the American
investment of nearly $2 billion in Plan Colombia, a mostly military aid
package approved by Congress in 2000, Colombia is no closer to reaching any
of its main goals: reducing violence, cutting drug exports, negotiating
peace or improving the lot of ordinary people.

"The results of Plan Colombia have been disappointing." said Senator
Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who leads a key appropriations
subcommittee. "After spending more than $1.5 billion, in many respects the
situation is worse today than before Plan Colombia began."

But the president-elect told reporters after meeting with Mr. Bush that
Plan Colombia needed American resources "to avoid massacres, abductions and
other kinds of crimes that are striking the Colombian people."

In the informal meeting with the president, Mr. Uribe, who does not take
office until August, emphasized that he would seek to revive peace
negotiations with guerrillas, using United Nations help, and safeguard
human rights even as he cracked down on violence by two leftist
insurgencies and a paramilitary organization.

Mr. Uribe outlined plans to double his nation's security forces and set up
a civilian defense network, and said he would consider imposing a new tax
to pay for them, officials said.

The United States has spent or requested nearly $2 billion in aid to
Colombia as part of a strategy that was originally called Plan Colombia and
has since been expanded into the Andean Regional Initiative. To the
frustration of American officials, the government of the departing
president, Andres Pastrana, failed to live up to its spending commitments
under the plan, as did European donors.

"Our message is we want to stand with Colombia," said the administration
official. "We're prepared to do a lot, and Colombia needs to do a lot in
all areas - human rights, drugs, security."

Despite his negative assessment, which is widely shared, Senator Leahy said
he would continue to support the administration's Colombia strategy.
Colombia's toxic mix of drugs, terrorism and poverty are potentially too
destabilizing for the United States to ignore, lawmakers say.

"The aid will continue, but with conditions designed to protect both
Colombia and the United States," Mr. Leahy said.

Congress is preparing to disburse $550 million in aid this summer, and is
expected to approve an administration request that would allow United
States funds and equipment to be used in the fight against terrorism in
addition to drugs. The administration has allocated $98 million to train
Colombians to protect an oil pipeline that is a favorite target of rebel
saboteurs.

A State Department official said today that, in cooperation with Mr. Uribe,
the administration had nearly doubled its goals for aerial eradication of
coca fields. Lino Gutierrez, the deputy assistant secretary of state, said
the United States hoped to see 370,000 acres sprayed with herbicide,
compared with 207,000 acres last year.

But the antidrug effort has been plagued with problems. A memo by the
General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, reported this
month that the Colombian Army had been slow in providing about 250 pilots
and others for training on 44 Black Hawk and Huey helicopters supplied by
the United States for moving Colombian troops on drug raids.

American officials, the memo said, have "expressed frustration with the
overall pace of Plan Colombia and the lack of Colombian commitment to the
program."