U.S. weighs closer military ties with El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (Reuters) -- The U.S. military said Monday it would study the possibility of increasing support to El Salvador's military to fight drug trafficking.

Gen. Peter Pace, commander of the Miami-based Southern Command, said during a visit to the Central American nation that he would analyze the possibility of closer military cooperation with El Salvador.

Earlier this year El Salvador agreed to allow U.S. forces to establish a military operations center at the Comalapa international airport outside the capital to fight regional drug trafficking.

"I'm looking for ways to help, respecting the borders of the armed forces of the United States and El Salvador," Pace told a news conference with El Salvador Defense Minister Gen. Juan Martinez Varela. "It is a matter of sovereignty."

He described U.S. forces at Comalapa as "guests," using the airport as a base to combat drug shipments.

The former guerrilla organization Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) has filed a legal challenge to the U.S. presence.

The United States provided military aid to El Salvador against FMLN rebels in a bloody Cold War-era civil war that ended with a peace accord in 1992.

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