PRESIDENT BUSH will meet the one Latin American leader as eager as he is to talk about the War on Terror when he stops on his way home today in the old Spanish Main city of Cartagena for lunch with President Uribe of Colombia.

The US recognises Señor Uribe as a key ally in the war even though, in Colombia, Marxist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs are the enemy instead of Islamic extremists. Colombia is the third biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel and Egypt, with the US hoping the five-year “Plan Colombia” will defeat a powerful Marxist insurgency and stopping the flow of cocaine to US cities.

Plan Colombia is to end next year and Señor Uribe is expected to press today for continued assistance. He can point to the swaths of territory his army have taken from the guerrillas in the two years since he came to power and the drop in kidnappings and jump in cocaine seizures.

But Mr Bush might want to discuss the comments earlier this year by his drug czar that despite Plan Colombia the flow of cocaine into the US has remained steady.

The two men are also expected to swap notes on Venezuela. Colombia accuses it of tacit support for the Farc guerrillas, the biggest of the country’s Marxist rebel groups and is concerned by Venezuela’s plans to upgrade its airforce.

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