US plays down Venezuela's troop buildup near Colombia

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday played down Venezuela's troop buildup near the border with Colombia by saying Caracas had no role to play other than to join a US and regional bid for dialogue.

"This is an issue between Colombia and Ecuador," the State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters when asked to comment on deployments by Venezuela, long a thorn in Washington's side.

He said US ally Colombia wants to stop threats from a "terrorist" group, while Ecuador seeks to prevent another Colombian military strike against the group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Ecuadoran soil.

"This is an issue where the best course of action is for the two of them to engage and work this out," Casey said.

"Frankly, (I'm) not sure what Venezuela's role in this should be or remotely could be other than to try to do what the rest of us are doing, which is to encourage a dialogue among the parties," the deputy spokesman said.

Casey stood by US President George W. Bush's description of Venezuela's role as "provocative." The Bush administration has has long been at odds with Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Casey repeated US support for discussions to resolve the border issue within the Organization of American States (OAS), which "does have a say and does have an opportunity to register its concerns."

Both Ecuador and Colombia have called for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers of the Americas by March 11 to deal with their crisis.

The initiative was demanded during an emergency OAS session on Tuesday that examined the worsening situation and last weekend's cross-border raid that killed a rebel leader.

Casey added there are "a number of other dicussions going on" but did not elaborate.

"We've been encouraging the parties to work through this issue diplomatically. We'll see where the conversations end up at the OAS but I expect you'll see something from them later today," he added.

He saw the OAS as playing a role in facilitating dialogue.

"The OAS does not have the ability to legally bind its members other than their commitments that they've made themselves through the OAS charter, but it's an important forum for discussion," Casey said.

He was "not aware of what contact" the United States might have had with Venezuela.