Colombia's Uribe inches closer to 2010 re-election

* Congressional committee approves re-election bill

* Uribe mum but government pushing hard for 2010 run

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe stepped closer to re-election on Tuesday when a congressional committee approved a bill aimed at allowing him to run for a third term next May, but a tough vote looms in the full House.

The measure, calling for a referendum to change the constitution, had been stalled for weeks in the committee but the government has launched an all-out lobbying effort.

Congress already changed the constitution once to allow Uribe, a U.S.-backed conservative, to stand for re-election in 2006. Tuesday's committee vote reconciled different versions of the new referendum bill passed by the Senate and lower House, where the measure still faces an uncertain future.

"The real difficulty was never to get the bill out of the reconciliation committee. It has always been to get the 84 votes we need on the floor of the full House and that difficulty remains," said Nicolas Uribe, a pro-government member of the House who is not related to the president.

Uribe is Washington's key ally in the Andean region, where neighboring governments regularly criticize U.S. policy and are strengthening ties with Russia, China and Iran.

Colombia, an exporter of coal, coffee and oil, is also the world's top producer of cocaine, putting it at the forefront of international anti-narcotics efforts.

A proposal to allow U.S. forces to use up to seven Colombian military bases has raised tensions in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday a new security pact with Bogota, which has received more than $5 billion in U.S. aid since 2000, was aimed at fighting drug trafficking and Marxist FARC guerrillas and will not create U.S. bases in Colombia. [ID:nN18441553]

Even some of Uribe's staunchest supporters in Colombia and the United States say that another constitutional change could throw off the country's democratic balance of powers.

Legislators had been jittery about a court investigation into possible irregularities in previous votes on the bill.

"But circumstance have clearly changed," lawmaker Uribe, among those being investigated, told Reuters. "The government has persuaded people who had been nervous about the investigations."

The president easily won re-election three years ago and remains popular for pushing FARC insurgents onto the defensive. But discontent is growing over Uribe's handling of Colombia's economic recession.

Even if he does not run in May's election, the president's tough security stance has become ingrained in Colombia and is unlikely to change. The leading alternative candidate is Juan Manuel Santos, Uribe's hardline former defense minister. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)