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."