Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. US LAUDS VENEZUELA DRUG FIGHT DESPITE FLIGHT BAN CARACAS - U.S. officials Friday praised Venezuelan anti-drug efforts and pledged closer cooperation despite President Hugo Chavez's decision to deny U.S. drug surveillance planes access to Venezuelan airspace. Thomas Umberg, deputy director of the anti-narcotics office, who led a 15-member U.S. team that met with Chavez, noted an upsurge in cocaine and heroin seizures by Venezuelan officials in recent months. "Venezuela, in particular, is very focused on this issue," he told a news conference at Miraflores presidential palace. He added that White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey and a team of Justice Department officials would visit Venezuela within the next 30 days to further anti-narcotics cooperation. Venezuela borders the world's largest cocaine exporter, Colombia, and according to U.S. officials is a transit route for about half of the cocaine headed for Europe and 10 percent of the cocaine headed to the United States. Umberg avoided reporters' questions on Chavez's refusal to allow U.S. aircraft to fly over Venezuela to and from new anti-narcotics air bases in nearby Aruba and Curacao following the recent handover of U.S. military bases in Panama. Chavez, a former paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt in 1992, said Thursday that the U.S. officials would be "wasting their time" if they tried to persuade him to change his mind over the U.S. flights. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea