COLOMBIA'S PRESIDENT-ELECT TO SEEK WORLD HELP

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's triumphant president-elect, Alvaro Uribe,
said on Monday he would seek the United Nations (news - web sites)' help in
ending a 38-year war and ask foreign lenders to relieve debt payments so he
can deal with cocaine-funded guerrillas and rampant poverty.

Uribe, an independent whose father was killed by Marxist rebels in a
botched kidnap attempt, won a landslide election victory on Sunday by
promising a military build-up to get tough on the guerrillas after the
failure of President Andres Pastrana's attempts to negotiate peace.

But the combative president-in-waiting, who takes office on Aug. 7, struck
a conciliatory note, saying he would seek advice from his defeated
opponents and asking the international community to understand the
debt-burdened nation must spend to alleviate the poverty that feeds its
violence.

Uribe, a keen proponent of U.S. involvement in Colombia's war on drugs,
told Reuters his country will seek to reschedule payments on some of its
foreign debt.

The right-leaning 49-year-old lawyer whose stern, measured demeanor will
set him apart on the flamboyant stage of Latin American politics, said the
United Nations would be key to solving the long-standing war that claims
3,500 lives a year.

Illegal armed groups from the right and left increasingly fund their war
with cash from the world's largest cocaine industry. Leftist guerrillas
also make money kidnapping thousands of people every year.

"I am going to ask the U.N. for international mediation to restart dialogue
and to agree on places in Colombia where U.N. humanitarian missions,
supported by Colombian soldiers, can defend the Colombian people," Uribe,
who won 53 percent of the vote, told local radio.

He said he would meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

The president-elect was a fierce critic of Pastrana's three years of peace
talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which ended
in failure in February.

On Sunday night, Uribe told leftist rebels that talks were possible but
they must first lay down their arms, cease hostilities and end their
profitable kidnapping business.

"A peace process has to begin by bringing relief to the Colombian people,"
said Uribe, who suspended most public campaigning appearances after a bomb
blamed on Marxist guerrillas almost killed him in April.

Uribe Wants Military Build-Up

The 17,000-strong FARC, which has not commented on Uribe's victory, warned
voters to boycott the election. But while the rebels burned ballot boxes in
at least one town, voting was largely peaceful.

Uribe wants to boost spending on defense by a third to more than $4
billion, doubling the size of the police force and number of professional
soldiers.

But he also served notice to the international community that he wanted to
address the poverty that tempts so many Colombians to produce cocaine or
pushes them into the ranks of insurgent armies.

"The levels of misery are growing. Unemployment is at 17 or 18 percent,
there is even more underemployment. We need to invest in security and in
social spending," Uribe said.

He told Reuters shortly after Sunday's victory he said he would raise tax
revenues and cut spending and corruption, besides seeking help from the
International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) to cut Colombia's foreign
debt payments.

"The international community has to help us. For example, rescheduling
(debt) payments, so that we can have enough resources," he said.

Uribe repeated his support for Pastrana's "Plan Colombia" anti-cocaine
offensive, which is backed by more than $1 billion in mainly military U.S.
aid. But he said the United States should resume support for aerial
interdiction of smugglers and allow Colombia to use drug aid against the
guerrillas.

"Colombia has to defeat drugs. If we don't, we will never be able to
negotiate a solution to the conflict," he said, adding that Colombia's war
had the potential to destabilize Latin America.

The United States and European Union (news - web sites) congratulated Uribe.

"We look forward to working closely with him to advance our shared goals of
eliminating the scourges of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, improving
human rights conditions and insuring a prosperous future for all
Colombians," said State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg.

Human rights groups fear Uribe's anti-guerrilla policies will encourage
far-right paramilitary outlaws to rampage. The paramilitaries commit many
of Colombia's worst abuses.

They are also worried by his plan to equip 1 million rural vigilantes with
radios to assist the security forces.

Uribe's main presidential rival, Horacio Serpa of the opposition Liberal
Party, received 32 percent of the vote.

Pastrana, a conservative, was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.