Source: Reuter April 27 U.S., Panama to hold talks on antidrug center PANAMA CITY, April 27 (Reuter) The conversion of the U.S. Howard Air Force Base in Panama into an international antidrug centre should proceed as planned despite the upcoming retirement of a key negotiator, a U.S. Embassy official said Sunday. The official, who asked not to be identified, said John Negroponte, the U.S. coordinator for the Panama bases negotiations, would be retiring from the Foreign Service in June, but this should not affect ``routine talks'' set for Monday. Negroponte chairs the Interagency Working Group on Panama, which is reviewing a possible post1999 U.S. presence. Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares had said Panama would not enter into talks with the United States to negotiate a military presence in Panama in the next century. But he said the Washington could keep Howard air base at no cost for use as an antidrug centre. The United States is to turn over control of the Panama Canal and withdraw all troops and bases by Dec. 31, 1999, in accordance with bilateral canal treaties. A career diplomat with at least 35 years of service, Negroponte served as U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan administration at a time when the Central American nation was a staging ground for American efforts to topple the leftist Sandanista regime in neighbouring Nicaragua. In addition to serving as ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte has been ambassador to Mexico and the Philippines, an assistant secretary of state and deputy national security advisor under Colin Powell.