Rice stands by ally Colombia in Chavez dispute

By Patrick Markey and Doug Palmer

RIONEGRO, Colombia (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday in a high-profile show of support for a Washington ally locked in a dispute with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Speaking in Caracas as Rice ended her two-day visit, Chavez blasted Colombia as a U.S. "imperialist" pawn seeking to foment a military confrontation and suggested relations with his Andean neighbour could only deteriorate.

Rice arrived in the Colombian city of Medellin on Thursday evening to rally support for a free trade agreement which U.S. Democratic lawmakers oppose but which the White House says could help counter Chavez's influence in Latin America.

Trade was the key issue but Washington has stood firmly behind Uribe as a dispute erupted over President Chavez's mediation with Marxist rebels in Colombia and his calls for them to be taken off U.S. and European Union terrorism lists.

"We know that Colombia faces many challenges but I want to assure that you will have a good friend in the United States as you go through those challenges," Rice said beside Uribe at an air force base near Medellin, without mentioning Chavez.

With the largest U.S. military and anti-drugs aid package outside the Middle East, Uribe has driven back the rebels who are still fighting Latin America's oldest insurgency. Violence has ebbed and foreign investment has soared.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said last June that Colombia still needed to make much more progress to reduce violence against trade unionists and punish murderers before Congress would vote on the free trade pact.

Rice and other U.S. officials have presented the trade deal as essential to support an ally in a "tough" region.