U.S. USES TERRORISM FUNDS IN COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - President Bush told Colombian President Andres Pastrana on
Thursday that helping the South American country defeat drug traffickers is
part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism.

"My biggest job now is to defend our security and to help our friends
defend their security against terror," Bush said in an Oval Office meeting
with Pastrana.

Pastrana said Colombia and the United States "are fighting a common enemy
that is narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism."

Bush has asked Congress to remove restrictions that bar Colombia from using
U.S. helicopters and other drug-fighting assistance against leftist
guerrillas in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which
the State Department has branded a terrorist group.

"These aren't 'so-called terrorists,' these are terrorists. ... They've
captured people. They're after Andres," Bush said.

"By fighting narco-trafficking, by the way, we're fighting the funding
source for these political terrorists. And sometimes they're
interchangeable," he added.

After the meeting Pastrana and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick
both said it was vital for the Senate to renew the Andean Trade Preference
Act, which expires May 16.

The act is designed to help Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru expand
trade as an alternative to drug cultivation and trafficking. Bush extended
it after it expired Dec. 4.

Pastrana, who has been intensely lobbying lawmakers to pass the act, called
it a "vital component in the fight against drugs."

On Capitol Hill, however, Colombia's role in the U.S. effort to fight
narco-trafficking was greeted with skepticism at a hearing of the House
Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which is considering
Bush's additional request for nearly $600 million in anti-terror aid to
Colombia.

Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., asked Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage what Colombia has to do with the U.S. war on terrorism.

"We do believe this is part of the war on global terrorism," Armitage replied.

"We know ... FARC is targeting Americans, and not just targeting officials
and infrastructure in Colombia."

Along with $35 million in emergency anti-terrorism support, Bush wants $439
million in longer-term aid and $133 million to help Colombia stop guerrilla
attacks on an oil pipeline, reduce kidnappings and rebuild bombed police
stations.

The United States has given Colombia $1.7 billion in the past two years to
further Pastrana's $7.5 billion, six-year, anti-drug initiative. At the
House hearing, Rep. Steven Rothman, D-N.J., questioned whether money
requested to protect the pipeline was intended for that purpose or might
pay to build up Colombia's anti-insurgency forces.

Possibly both, Armitage said. "They are in a real tussle ... for survival,"
he said.