Bolivia's Morales asks US to fight cocaine use

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov 10 (Reuters) Bolivian President Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, urged the United States to help his country reduce its coca crops by stemming demand for cocaine among Americans.

His remarks followed an expression of concern earlier this week from the US ambassador to Bolivia over excess coca cultivation in Bolivia, where the left-leaning government opposes compulsory eradication of excess coca crops promoted by Washington.

''I'd like to ask the United States to slash demand (for cocaine) if they don't want coca (production) over the limits,'' Morales, an ally of U.S. foe Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, told coca farmers from the Yungas region -- a coca-producing area in the South American country.

Under Bolivian legislation, farmers in the Yungas can grow up to 12,000 hectares of coca plants for traditional uses, such as chewing or making into tea to ward off hunger and altitude sickness. Small plots are also allowed in the Chapare region, where Washington funds eradication programs.

Morales has vowed to defend farmers who make a living by growing the plant used to make cocaine, though he has also vowed to fight the drug trade. Bolivia is the world's third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru, while the United States is the biggest market for the drug.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, advocates the voluntary eradication of coca instead of the compulsory eradication promoted by Washington, which has accused his government of doing too little to fight the drugs trade.

''As much as our colleagues strive toward voluntary coca seradication, if they (the United States) don't reduce demand, there'll be coca that goes toward the illegal problem,'' Morales said in the speech in La Paz, broadcast on local radio.

REUTERS BDP RN0916