URIBE PROMISES TO FIGHT DRUG DEALING

MEXICO CITY -- Colombia's front-running presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe
promised Monday to fight drug smuggling and defeat rebel groups while
respecting human rights in his Andean nation.

His comments came after a meeting Monday with Mexican President Vicente
Fox, part of a trip that includes stops in Madrid, Spain, and Washington.
Recent polls have predicted that Uribe will easily win Colombia's
presidential election on May 26.

"A government that I lead will seek to defeat violent groups and
simultaneously recover human rights," he told reporters during a news
conference after his meeting with Fox.

Some have worried that Uribe's hard-line stance against the rebels may
ignore human rights. He championed armed citizen watch groups as a state
governor in the mid-1990s, and is now proposing that 1 million civilians be
mobilized to provide government security forces with intelligence on
insurgents.

Also Monday, he denied allegations by presidential candidate Horacio Serpa
that he has received support from paramilitary groups.

"It's strange to me that my competitors keep up with this accusation," he
said. "They know that I can raise my hand and say clearly: 'I have not had
any relations with a guerrilla group nor with the paramilitaries. My only
relation has been with the Colombian constitution!' "

He added that Colombia's rebel groups should receive no international
attention as long as terrorist acts continue.

"My general outlook is that the international community should help achieve
peace, but when violent Colombian groups abuse international help and
simply continue to increase their terrorist acts, they aren't showing signs
of peace, and this international help has to be taken away," he said.

The hard-line candidate called drug smuggling -- which many Colombian
rebels use to finance their activities -- a "danger for the entire continent."

He also called Fox, whose government recently arrested several of Mexico's
most-wanted drug lords, an "example of the determination to defeat
corruption and the old political system that did so much damage."

Colombia's 38-year internal conflict involves the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia and a smaller guerrilla group against the government and
an outlaw right-wing paramilitary militia.

After Mexico, Uribe is headed to Washington, where he is scheduled to meet
with Department of State officials and members of Congress.

President Bush has asked Congress to widen military aid to Colombia beyond
missions to stamp out production of cocaine and heroin. But the effort will
face opposition among lawmakers who feel Washington is getting too cozy
with a military that has a tarnished human rights record.