MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Morales talks coca with Condoleezza

Bolivia's new president, Evo Morales, discussed his country's fight against illegal drugs yesterday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then gave her a guitar decorated with coca leaves.

The leftist leader of the world's third-biggest cocaine producer, and the former head of Bolivia's coca growers group, greeted Rice warmly in their first meeting since he took office in January.

During his campaigning, Morales tagged himself a "nightmare" for Washington but a State Department official who attended the meeting described the atmosphere as friendly.

He said Rice had strummed the lacquered Bolivian instrument but it was unclear whether the top US diplomat could take it home because of US customs laws.

Drugs policy and trade with Latin America's poorest country were the main issues discussed at the meeting in a tiny room on the sidelines of the inauguration of Chile's first woman president, Michelle Bachelet.

"The US and Bolivia must work together to counter the drug trade," Rice told Morales, who was casually dressed in a leather jacket decorated with traditional embroidery. "We want to have a good friendship with Bolivia and to help the Bolivian people prosper through encouraging expansion of trade opportunities," Rice added.

The United States has been concerned that Morales will allow coca cultivation to increase in Bolivia. Coca is the main ingredient used in the production of cocaine and the United States funds programs to eradicate it.

The US official said Morales stressed how important it was to have a positive relationship with the United States and said he was committed to fighting the drug trade.

Morales's close ties with communist Cuba and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has called President George W. Bush a terrorist, had initially made Washington sceptical over whether Bolivia's first indigenous president was someone they could work with.

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

Rice did not meet Chavez during Saturday's celebrations for Bachelet and the US minister left the inauguration from one side of the room while the Venezuelan went out of another.

Morales this week accused the US military of blackmail for cutting funding from a Bolivian anti-terror unit because it was unhappy about the commander of the force. US officials said military assistance was not discussed yesterday but Rice said before their meeting that she thought they could work through concerns.