Massive cocaine haul in Guatemala

The traffickers escaped in a speedboat

The Guatemalan authorities have seized more than 1.5 tons of cocaine aboard an aeroplane on the country's Caribbean coast.

Security forces found the drugs when the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the province of Izabal.

Home Office minister Adolfo Reyes Calderon said two suspects escaped in a speedboat after a shoot-out with the Guatemalan police.

The seizure came as US President George W Bush, in a report to Congress on world drug trafficking, announced that Guatemala had been dropped from a list of countries "failing demonstrably" to meet international obligations to fight drugs.

The redesignation removes the threat of sanctions against Guatemala by the US.

Progress needed

In January, the State Department said it believed the Guatemalan police had stolen twice the amount of illegal drugs that they had officially seized last year and were linked with illegal executions of drug traffickers and civilians.

But the president said that in the past eight months Guatemala had "made efforts to improve its institutional capabilities, adhere to its obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements, and take measures set forth in US law".

"These initial steps show Guatemala's willingness to better its counter-narcotics practices, but the permanence of these improvements has yet to be demonstrated," he said.

"I expect Guatemala to continue its efforts and to demonstrate further progress in the coming year."