U.S. TROOPS MAY AID COLOMBIA DRUG WAR

Senators Asked To Alter Law To Allow Assistance, But Not In Combat Role

WASHINGTON -- A State Department official assured senators Wednesday that
U.S. soldiers will not be fighting Colombian rebels even if Congress lets
Colombia use antidrug helicopters and other equipment to battle the rebels.

"Not one of us here is talking about U.S. troops in a combat role," said
Marc Grossman, undersecretary of state for political affairs. "The
Colombians need to take the brunt of this, but we need to be there to help
them."

The Bush administration has no intention of exceeding the limits of 400 U.S.
military trainers and 400 civilian contractors that were set to join in
Colombian President Andres Pastrana's antidrug Plan Colombia, Grossman told
the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

Grossman and Army Maj. Gen. Gary Speer, acting commander in chief of the
Southern Command, told senators they need a change in U.S. law to allow
direct assistance to the Colombian military to fight terrorists and rebels.

The officials said current laws, which limit most U.S. aid to
counternarcotic operations, are no longer workable. The administration is
also seeking $35 million in emergency antiterrorism aid and $572 million in
long-term assistance.

"We seek new authorities to respond to the needs of a new mission -- to
combat terrorism," Grossman said.

His testimony was part of an intensified effort to sell the change in policy
to a skeptical Congress.

Last week, key members of Congress told Pastrana they were uneasy about
deepening the United State's involvement in his nation.

The United States has provided more than $1 billion in assistance to fight
Colombia's drug trade during the past two years.

Colombia's three main rebel groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC; the National Liberation Army of Colombia, or ELN, and the
United Self-Defense Group of Colombia, or AUC -- are on the State
Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. All are financed
through drug trafficking, Speer said.

Grossman said the guerrilla groups and the AUC paramilitary organization had
increased terrorist attacks and their threats to U.S. citizens and
interests.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Senate subcommittee chairman, said the United
States must fulfill its pledge to aid Colombia in its "hour of crisis" and
that he would probably support the administration's request.