BUSH DISMAYED BY COCA PRODUCTION

WASHINGTON -- Despite intensified eradication, coca production in Colombia
increased by about 25 percent last year, the Bush administration said,
contradicting Colombian government claims of a significant decline.

In releasing the figures Thursday, the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy admitted that the results of the escalating effort were less
than it had hoped for.

The gloomy assessment contrasted sharply with the announcement last week by
Colombian Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez that his figures showed a
decline in coca production by about 16 percent -- from 392,000 acres to
336,000 acres -- between August 2000 and December 2001.

He said that trend was a "clear demonstration" the U.S.-backed eradication
campaign was working.

The White House statement attributed part of its finding of an increase to
the inclusion of a coca growing area not surveyed in 2000 because of cloud
cover.

It also said some of the coca included in the estimate was later eradicated
by spray planes.

Based on satellite imagery, the coca crop was reported to be 417,430 acres
last year, 82,992 more than in 2000, the statement said. Last week, the
State Department said nearly twice as many acres were sprayed last year
compared with 2000.

Colombia's huge coca crop has serious implications both for that country
and for the United States.

Earnings from coca -- the raw material for cocaine -- support insurgencies
of the left and the right in Colombia that have devastated the country for
years.

And cocaine addicts in the United States rely almost exclusively on imports
from Colombia to maintain their habit, Colombia serving as the largest
producer and distributor of coca in the world.

The White House statement said the figures "underscore the pervasiveness of
cultivation and trafficking in Colombia; the magnitude and complexity of
Colombia's interlocking security, drug control, and economic challenges;
and the need for sustained U.S. engagement."

It said the security environment in Colombian drug cultivation regions has
made it difficult to implement counterdrug programs.

"We will continue to work with the government of Colombia to achieve our
mutual objectives of strengthening democracy, eliminating drug trafficking,
and enforcing the rule of law," the statement added.

Part of the increase occurred in a huge zone that President Andres Pastrana
ceded to leftist FARC guerrillas in 1998 in hopes of spurring peace talks.

Pastrana called off the initiative two weeks ago, complaining that the
rebels, instead of using the Switzerland-sized area to promote peace, were
using it for military purposes and for the coca trade.

The Clinton administration undertook a major commitment to curb illicit
narcotics flows from Colombia in 2000. Congress approved $1.3 billion in
assistance, mostly for helicopters destined for Colombia's military.

Officials cautioned at the time that the process would take time but the
White House statement suggested that progress has been slower than expected.