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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been meeting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the end of a trip to advance a free trade pact.

President Uribe said the treaty was "an of import measure for there to be more than investing in Colombia".

But the Democrat-controlled us United States Congress have so far refused to O.K. the deal.

Venezuelan President Victor Hugo Carlos Chavez said the United States and Republic Of Colombia were plotting "military aggression" against his country, but provided no evidence.

The Venezuelan leader said that this was the existent ground for Multiple Sclerosis Rice's visit to Colombia, which he called a "pawn of the North American empire".

Mr Carlos Chavez said it would be "very difficult" for Republic Of Venezuela to normalise dealings with Republic Of Colombia amid diplomatic latent hostilities with Mister Uribe's government.

'Violent reputation'

President Uribe said that the international golf course a trade trade with the United States would convey were of import for Colombian workers' security.

"The more than than that the state is integrated with the international community, the more that the rights of workers will be respected, and the greater the chances for workers," he said.

"If the state insulates itself and makes not progress in substances of trade, it will be harder for workers' rights to be respected."

For United States President Saint George Tungsten Bush, Democratic support in United States Congress is critical if the free trade trade is to come up into effect.

Republic Of Colombia is doing the right thing after many old age of conflict

Condoleezza Rice

But the Democrats have got so far refused to endorse the pact, citing concerns about Colombia's human rights record and authorities officials' alleged golf course with right-wing militias.

One member of a grouping of Democrats from the House of Representatives who travelled with Multiple Sclerosis Rice said: "You can't let that to travel unanswered."

"It's not a inquiry of the rightness or inappropriateness of the free trade agreement," said Saint David George C. Scott of Georgia.

"The inquiry is: Can you acquire the ballots in the United States Congress when you have got such as a violent reputation?"

But the White Person House states Republic Of Colombia have made great additions in the warfare on drugs and terrorism.

Earlier, Multiple Sclerosis Rice met former left-wing guerillas and former members of the country's right-wing paramilitary groupings who have got been reincorporated into society after laying down their weapons.

After meeting President Uribe, Mister Rice denied that the United States disposal is pushing the free trade treaty as a manner of countering the influence of regional challenger Venezuela.

"There's no ideological diagnostic test for our friends," she said.

She said she wanted "to do clear.... that Republic Of Colombia is doing the right thing after many old age of conflict".

However, many United States Democrats and trade trade unionists stay unconvinced, with Jeff Vogt, a planetary economical policy specializer with the AFL-CIO, speaking of "deep-rooted concerns about continuing violence".

The AFL-CIO is the biggest United States labor grouping and a cardinal support of the Democratic Party.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Medellin it will stays to be seen whether a United States Congress, more than interested in the current fighting for presidential campaigners and this year's elections, will be won over by Multiple Sclerosis Rice's arguments.