Bush: Colombia pact too important to be delayed

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A free trade pact with Colombia is too important to U.S. national security interests for congressional leaders to prevent a vote on the pact this year, President George W. Bush said on Wednesday.

He said the pact is essential to support a key ally in Latin America facing threats from the FARC guerrilla group at home and from neighboring Venezuela, led by leftist President Hugo Chavez.

"As we speak, Colombia is under assault from a terrorist network known as the FARC, which aims to overthrow Colombia's democracy and aims to impose a Marxist vision on the country," Bush told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"Members of the Congress must be ready to move forward with the agreement when they return from the Easter recess," he said. "And they need to get the job done and get a bill to my desk."

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters that Bush intended to send the agreement to Congress "very shortly" after the March break to ensure that lawmakers vote on the pact by the end of the year.

Colombia triggered a regional crisis this month by sending troops into neighboring Ecuador on a raid that killed a senior FARC commander.

Chavez, who leads a growing anti-U.S. bloc in Latin America and accuses Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of being a pawn of Washington, responded by ordering his troops to the Colombian border.

"This is the latest step in a disturbing pattern of provocative behavior by the regime in Caracas," Bush said. "It has squandered its own oil wealth in an effort to promote its hostile anti-American vision."

Bush also sees Uribe as a key ally in the war against drug trafficking, and has sent billions of dollars in mainly military aid to Colombia to help it fight the FARC and drug cartels.

LABOR OPPOSED

The Bush administration has been pressing Congress for a vote on the Colombia agreement as well as two other trade pacts with Panama and South Korea for over a year.

The AFL-CIO labor federation strongly opposes the pact with Colombia, which it has called the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has insisted Colombia make more progress on reducing violence against trade unionists and bringing murderers to justice before the Democratic-controlled Congress votes on the trade pact.

The Bush administration wants Pelosi to give her assent to a vote on the Colombia agreement, even if she personally opposes the pact. Administration officials believe they can round up the 218 votes needed for approval in the House if Pelosi does not insist all Democrats vote against it.

"We continue to stand ready to negotiate a bipartisan way forward. But time is running out and we must not allow delay to turn into inaction. The Colombia agreement is pivotal to America's national security and economic interest right now and it's too important to be held up by politics," Bush said.