US POINTS FINGER AT EUROPE FOR RISING COCAINE USE

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) -- The United States released estimates on
Wednesday pointing to a dramatic rise in the use of cocaine in Europe,
bolstering its case for greater European involvement in helping
Colombia wage war on drugs.

European nations, led by Spain, Germany and Italy, consumed between 194
and 207 tons of cocaine last year, up from 104 to 110 tons in 1996,
according to a study prepared by the office of White House drug policy
chief Barry McCaffrey.

Ninety percent of the cocaine flowing to Europe comes from Colombia,
and is mostly smuggled in ships across the Atlantic, partly through
Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, the study said.

The estimates were compiled from information provided by U.S. drug
enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The figures were released ahead of Friday's meeting in Madrid between
European Union states to discuss aid donations to Colombia's plan to
stop drug production and armed violence that are tearing the South
American country apart.

Colombia produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine, which is made from
the leaf of the Andean coca bush.

The U.S. Congress last week approved a $1.3 billion package of aid for
Colombia, mostly military assistance and helicopters to mount an
offensive into parts of southern Colombia that are controlled by left-
wing guerrillas financed by the lucrative drug trade.

European governments are willing to fund alternative crops and social
programmes, but are critical of the U.S. move to boost military aid to
the Colombian army, fearing this will deepen a civil war that has cost
35,000 lives in the last decade.

U.S. officials and experts on Colombia said the Europeans had tended to
see the Colombian crisis as a U.S. problem, but the rapid rise in
cocaine has made Europe equally responsible.

"This report shows that we are all in this together and that it is in
everyone's interest to work with the Andean countries to help confront
drug trafficking and abuse," said a spokesman for U.S. drug "czar"
McCaffrey.

U.S. cocaine consumption, which shot up in the 1970s and 1980s, has
leveled off at around 300 tons a year, the study said.

The United States is the world's largest market for the drug, but
Europe is seeing a rise in consumption similar to U.S. society in
earlier decades, the study said.

"The Europeans see this as an American problem because it is in the
United States' backyard, and yet they criticize U.S. military
involvement," said Miguel Ceballos, director of research on Colombia
at Georgetown University.

Rising European cocaine consumption is escalating fighting in Colombia
by helping the guerrillas buy arms, Ceballos said.

Russian organized crime is reportedly paying for cocaine shipments with
powerful weapons that are getting to the rebels through Brazil, he
added.

"The Europeans are also responsible and must get involved," Ceballos
said.

Washington will be represented at Friday's donor conference in Madrid
by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas Pickering,
who coordinated U.S. policy on Colombia.

Colombia's President Andres Pastrana, who devised a $7.5 billion "Plan
Colombia" to curb the drug trade, pacify armed groups and boost
economic development, is looking for a $1 billion aid contribution
from European nations. ---