Colombian Prez Asks For Bank Aid

Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe met Secretary of State Colin Powell Wednesday and asked for U.S. support in multilateral financial institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank.

A senior U.S. official said the United States expected to have an excellent relationship with Uribe, who takes office in August as the head of a government fighting leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers with massive U.S. assistance. Colombia is the third largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt.

Uribe is on his first visit to the United States as president-elect after winning a landslide victory in May. He ran on a platform of tough action against irregular forces that have killed 40,000 people in the past decade alone.

"We asked Secretary Powell for U.S. support in the Inter-American Development Bank and international financial institutions," he told reporters at the State Department.

Uribe Tuesday met World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who said in a statement he looked forward to "a productive relationship" with Uribe's team, and Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique Iglesias.

He is hoping for more loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to fund poverty-reduction programs. Colombia has a loan worth about $2.44 billion with the IMF, none of which has been used, and has $858 million of credits available from the World Bank.

He said that he and Powell spoke about the problem of violence in Colombia and cooperation with the Bush administration, which has asked Congress to give the Colombians more aid money and let them use it to fight the guerrillas.

Otto Reich, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told reporters, "We expect to have an excellent relationship with President Uribe."

The United States also has had good relations with current Colombian President Andres Pastrana, giving his government $1 billion in aid over the past two years to fight drug traffickers, although some U.S. officials sometimes felt he was too soft on the guerrillas.

U.S. officials have welcomed Uribe's promise to increase defense spending and expand the military.

"Both the president and the finance minister raised the fact that they realize that Colombia has to provide more of its own resources. We're fully in agreement," Reich said.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said: "The secretary congratulated President-elect Uribe on his election and expressed our desire to continue the close and friendly relationship that we have with Colombia.

"(They) both discussed how much they look forward to working together, advancing our shared goals of eliminating the scourges of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, strengthening Colombia's democratic institutions and improving human rights conditions in Colombia."

Uribe also has meetings Wednesday with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde.