"He did" ask, Wolfowitz told AFP, "and he even suggested that maybe we had some capabilities that are no longer needed in Iraq and might be useful in South America and ... it's a serious question.

"I don't know if there's anything in that category, but President (George Bush told us to look so we're going to look."

General James Hill, commander of the Miami-based US Southern Command, who also met with Uribe, said, "I've been to Colombia 13 times in the past seven to eight months and I think we're making great progress, we continue to make great progress and that's what we talked to President Uribe about.

"We want to continue the support for Colombia in its fight against terrorists."

"We look in every way for what we can do," said Wolfowitz, "and some of that also is a matter of what the Colombian military can make use of... We made a great deal of progress ourselves during the last 10 years and that is what we call joint operations."

SPACE.WIRE