U.S. sees 2008 vote on Colombia trade 'imperative'

By Mike Power

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - A vote in Congress this year on Colombia's trade deal is "imperative," a top U.S. trade official said on Sunday as the Bush administration seeks to persuade Democrats to back the pact for a key ally.

Democrats in the U.S. Congress are still not convinced President Alvaro Uribe has done enough to address their concerns over violence against labor leaders caught up in the Andean country's four-decade-old conflict.

U.S. trade officials are expected to submit the agreement to Congress soon and trigger a 90-day deadline for the vote even as the Democrat leadership expresses skepticism.

"Geopolitical implications and national security implications and quite frankly the economic implications ... we believe make it imperative that there be a vote this year," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters during a visit to Cartagena with a congressional delegation.

Uribe, now in his second term, is a staunch Washington supporter in a region where left-wing leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa have opposed U.S. free-market proposals for South America.

Backed by billions of dollars in U.S. aid, Uribe has sent troops to retake parts of the country once under the control of armed groups. Violence has ebbed and investment increased.

But Democrats are still concerned about the influence of former illegal paramilitary commanders who disarmed under an agreement with Uribe. They say labor leaders are still killed at an alarming rate in Colombia.

Six senior U.S. officials wrote last week to the Democrat leadership describing how attacks on unionists had declined and said they planned to send the pact to Congress to assure a vote this year. But a submission date remains unclear.