Bolivia to seek full Mercosur membership
Bolivia will soon seek full membership of the South American Common Market (Mercosur), the top diplomat of the Andes nation announced on Monday.

Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said that President Evo Morales will within days submit the formal application to both the Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).

"We want to be full members and in the next few days, possibly today, the president will make [the request] reach all Mercosur's presidents, as well as those of CAN," Choquehuanca told local media.

Choquehuanca and five other Bolivian ministers were on a visit to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, where they held talks with Brazilian officials on bilateral and regional issues.

Brazilian Chancellor Celso Amorim said after discussions with Choquehuanca that he welcomes the request by President Morales.

The bloc, currently composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, will be able to confirm Bolivia as a full member on Jan. 18, 2007, when the presidents of the member states are scheduled to gather in Rio de Janeiro.

Choquehuanca stressed that the accession of Bolivia to Mercosurdoes not means it will leave CAN, which also includes Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Amorim said that shall not represent an obstacle for the country to join Mercosur, as CAN is no longer a customs union in practical terms.

Also on Monday, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Correa's Foreign-Minister-in-waiting, condemned the spraying.

"A Quito-Bogota commitment not to use spraying has existed for over a year," Espinosa said. "We have seen reports from Quito's Universidad Catolica and Universidad Central that have discovered side effects including genetic mutations in plants and humans," she added.

Colombia suspended its fumigation program after it reached a deal with Ecuador in December 2005. The agreement followed complaints from Ecuador that the fumigation harmed the environmentand the health of local residents.

However, the Colombian government renewed the program last weekas illegal drug crops were said to be mushrooming in the area. It said the fungicide in glyphosate was not toxic.

According to Colombia, there are more than 10,000 hectares of land planted with coca leaves in the area, which can be translated into nearly 70 tons of drugs with a black market value of 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.

Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer and exporter with an annual output in excess of 500 tons. Most of them are smuggled into the United States and Europe.