COLOMBIA SEEKING US-ANDEAN SECURITY PUSH

Colombian President Andres Pastrana said on Sunday he had proposed a joint
security effort between Andean nations, which produce most of the world's
cocaine, and the United States to fight the drug trade.

"We are going to pursue the possibility that the United States and the
Andean countries ... work together to exchange information ... in an extra
effort against our common enemy, drug trafficking," Pastrana told reporters
in Lima.

Pastrana said he had proposed a "working group" during talks in Lima this
weekend with US President George W. Bush, Peruvian President Alejandro
Toledo, Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga and Ecuadorean Vice President
Pedro Pinto.

He said such a group could count on military, intelligence and police
cooperation, but gave no further details.

The fight against drugs and the war on terror were high on the agenda for
Bush's 17-hour visit to Peru, which trails only Colombia in production of
coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine. Bolivia is the world's
third-largest coca producer.

The United States, the world's biggest consumer of drugs, has sunk more
than $1 billion in mostly military aid to fight the drugs trade in
Colombia, mired in nearly 40 years of war between Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, far-right paramilitary outlaws and the
military.

Last month Pastrana broke off three years of peace talks with the FARC,
which the government say profits from running drugs, and reclaimed a
rebel-controlled enclave.

But with US backing key for Pastrana's Plan Colombia, designed to stamp out
the cocaine trade, Bush has asked Congress to give him authority to use aid
to fight rebels as well as drugs. The proposed shift in Washington's aid
policy would bar the U.S military from actual combat.

Some of Colombia's neighbors have expressed concern the conflict could
spill over Colombia's borders, triggering waves of refugees or rebel
incursions.

Pastrana said he was worried about FARC incursions into Venezuela after the
military said rebels launched an attack from Venezuelan territory this week.

Lima denies reports that FARC could be on the move within Peruvian
territory but officials warn that a crackdown on drugs in Colombia could
only stoke the illegal trade within Peru.

Some military experts in Peru pointed the finger at the FARC last week
after a bomb killed nine near the US Embassy in Lima. Another rebel group
being blamed is Shining Path, the once-powerful group that battled Peru's
government in the 1980s and 1990s.

The government says it is too early to lay blame.