Source: Associated Press Pubdate: 25 Dec 1997 PANAMA, UNITED STATES AGREE TO SET UP ANTIDRUG CENTER PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) The United States and Panama have agreed to set up a center to monitor drug smuggling in Latin America, although some Panamanians say it amounts to turning the country over to foreigners. The U.S.led antidrug center will be built on what is now Howard Air Force Base, a rolling campus with nature trails and bike paths that is one of the most beautiful U.S. military bases in Panama. Wednesday's announcement followed street protests and months of delicate negotiations. The minority of Panamanians who oppose the center, recalling the 1989 U.S. invasion, say the United States is going back on its word to pull its soldiers out of the country. ``This is a continuation of the bases,'' said Carlos Abadia, leader of the opposition Civil Renovation Party. Few details of Tuesday's agreement signed in Miami by U.S. diplomat Thomas MacNamara and Panamanian official Jorge Ritter have been announced, but the center is intended to monitor drug activity in the region after the United States turns over its bases to Panama at the end of 1999. ``We have reached an agreement, and now we will enter into a phase in which we will invite other Latin American countries to participate,'' Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares said, adding that Mexico, Brazil and Colombia have been especially interested in the plan. The president said details of the agreement would be released soon. In Washington, the State Department said there are still ``some details which need to be worked on before the texts are made final. The negotiators will meet again next week for that purpose.'' Before it takes effect, the agreement requires approval by Panama's legislature and by a majority of Panamanians in a referendum next year. Panama and the United States began to talk about the center in 1995, but formal negotiations began only this year. In a small building at Howard Air Force Base, the U.S. military has been conducting operations since 1992 similar to what will go on at the antidrug center. The small, windowless building known as the ``Pizza Hut'' is filled with computers and communications equipment to monitor airplanes and ships smuggling drugs from South America and the Caribbean toward the United States. Those operations will remain largely intact under the center. Neither country said how many U.S. military officials would stay on at the antidrug center, but Panamanian news media reported Wednesday that the number would be as high as 2,000. Perez Balladares repeatedly has insisted the antidrug center is different from a military presence. A poll by the newspaper La Prensa published Monday showed 67 percent of people surveyed approved of the center, while 25 percent disapproved. The telephone survey of 1,182 people was conducted Dec. 1314 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.