..Uribe agrees US "access"

The Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe confirmed that it would give the United States access to at least three military bases "to increase Colombia's overall military and paramilitary engagement in the Colombian conflict". "The plan is to strengthen Colombian military bases, not to open American bases in Colombia," he said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela has threatened to review its relations with neighboring Colombia over the country's plan to allow US troops to use its military bases. Reports say that the United States could have access to three to four bases in Colombia for anti-narcotics surveillance flights. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the plan is "a threat against us.” "They are surrounding Venezuela with military bases," he said in a televised speech. The move "obliges us to review our relations" with Colombia, Chavez said. Other countries in the region, like Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia, have also criticized the plan.

The U.S.-financed multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia, initially presented as an anti-drug strategy but later described also as a counterinsurgency plan against the FARC has been operating since January 2000. The U.S. classifies the FARC as a terrorist and drug trafficking organisation. The Colombian government is trying to get the U.S. to limit its funding cuts for Plan Colombia, which has enabled it to fight the rebels from the air and to expand the deployment of land troops.

Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world, after Israel and Egypt.