Leading politicians and human rights groups in the United States have expressed doubts over the one-point-six-bilion dollar aid package for Colombia announced by President Clinton yesterday.

The aid is aimed at tackling illegal drug trafficking and will mainly be used to train and equip special anti-narcotics military units.

The human rights group, the Washington Office on Latin America, said further military assistance would do little to reduce drugs production and would implicate the United States in what it called brutal counterinsurgency campaigns. The democratic senator, Patrick Leahy, said the package was an attempt to increase funding for counterinsurgency in the name of anti-drugs efforts.

The package must be passed by Congress and correspondents say approval is far from assured.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service