Bolivia's Morales, Rice discuss coca policy

New Bolivian President Evo Morales, who has called himself a nightmare for Washington, put aside public differences with the United States yesterday and held his first meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Anxious to prove Washington does not hold grudges against Latin America's growing tide of left-wing leaders, Rice met Morales briefly before the inauguration of Chile's first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, of the leftist Socialist Party.

Bolivia is the world's third-biggest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, and the US funds programmes in Bolivia to eradicate coca, the main ingredient of cocaine.

Before meeting Rice, Morales said he wanted to discuss a "true and effective fight against drug trafficking" that could not be a "pretext to control or recover political power".

For her part, Rice was at pains to stress Washington wanted to be a good friend to Bolivia and said there had been co-operation so far in both fighting terrorism and drugs.

Morales went into politics as the leader of Bolivia's coca growers and the US is concerned he will allow coca cultivation to increase in Bolivia.

During the election, Morales threatened to roll back US efforts to curb coca growing, but has since urged farmers to respect a law limiting how much each family can grow. The cultivation and sale of limited amounts of coca is legal in Bolivia but the US contends excess production of the plant eventually ends up on the illegal drug market.

At the 25-minute meeting, Morales gave Rice a charango, an Andean five-stringed guitar, and she told him "I'm a musician you know", and strummed the instrument, according to the State Department official.

Morales, who took office in January, has close ties with communist Cuba and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, friendships that have made Washington wary of Bolivia's first indigenous president.

"We will always be open to dialogue. We can talk with (US President George W.) Bush, but also with (Cuban President) Fidel Castro," Morales told reporters on Friday.

Rice has no official plans during her two-day visit to Chile to meet Chavez, who the Bush administration regards as a belligerent, anti-US leader.

Along with fellow Andean countries, Bolivia gets preferential trade tariffs from Washington as long as it co-operates in the war on drug-trafficking. That deal expires at the end of this year and Bolivia has not taken part in free-trade negotiations with the United States.

Earlier this week, Morales accused the US military of "blackmail" for cutting funding from a Bolivian anti-terror unit because it was unhappy with the commander of the force.