http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/politics-2/1080060257124530.xml
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Amid early signs of success, President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday discussed the need for intensifying the war against narco-terrorists in the South American country.
"I have found in President Bush a huge level of understanding that we cannot leave this fight halfway," Uribe said after the two met.
A Bush administration report released during Uribe's visit shows a 21 percent decline in coca cultivation in Colombia for 2003, following a 33 percent decline the year before.
"Our main target now is not to focus on how to diminish terrrorist activities but how to eliminate terrorism for a peace of mind of Colombian people," said Uribe. He said he is commited "to finish with that plague."
The United States has provided more than $2.5 billion in training, plus military hardware such as helicopters and intelligence equipment, since 2000 under the so-called Plan Colombia.
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
With that, and Uribe's stepped-up crackdown on leftist rebels and drug traffickers, there has been a sizable reduction in coca cultivation and an extension of government control into former rebel strongholds.
The State Department is requesting the flexibility to use up to 800 military personnel and 600 U.S. citizen civilian contractors in support of Plan Colombia, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. Such a change ? doubling the current limits ? would require legislation
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Amid early signs of success, President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday discussed the need for intensifying the war against narco-terrorists in the South American country.
"I have found in President Bush a huge level of understanding that we cannot leave this fight halfway," Uribe said after the two met.
A Bush administration report released during Uribe's visit shows a 21 percent decline in coca cultivation in Colombia for 2003, following a 33 percent decline the year before.
"Our main target now is not to focus on how to diminish terrrorist activities but how to eliminate terrorism for a peace of mind of Colombian people," said Uribe. He said he is commited "to finish with that plague."
The United States has provided more than $2.5 billion in training, plus military hardware such as helicopters and intelligence equipment, since 2000 under the so-called Plan Colombia.
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.
With that, and Uribe's stepped-up crackdown on leftist rebels and drug traffickers, there has been a sizable reduction in coca cultivation and an extension of government control into former rebel strongholds.
The State Department is requesting the flexibility to use up to 800 military personnel and 600 U.S. citizen civilian contractors in support of Plan Colombia, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. Such a change ? doubling the current limits ? would require legislation
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