Pubdate: Thu, 06 May 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press ECUADOR HOME OF US ANTI-DRUG CENTER QUITO, Ecuador - U.S. airplanes have started using an airfield on Ecuador's coast as a forward base for anti-narcotics patrols to replace the now-closed operations center in Panama, U.S. Embassy officials said Thursday. The first flight arrived Tuesday at the airfield in the town of Manta on the Pacific coast, 170 miles southeast of the Ecuadoran capital, Quito, embassy spokesman Mark Krischik said. The United States has reached interim agreements to use airfields in Manta and the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao off Venezuela to fill the hole left by Wednesday's closing of the Howard Air Force Base in Panama. The United States had been flying 2,000 anti-drug missions a year out of Howard air base, which was a major center for its anti-drug efforts in Latin America, U.S. officials said. It was closed as part of the U.S. handover of the Canal Zone to Panama. The president of Ecuador's Congress, Juna Pons, called on the government to provide details of the agreement on U.S. use of Manta. He said Congress must approve international treaties, but were not informed about this agreement. The U.S. government is trying to negotiate a 10-year agreement to use the airfields, known as ``forward operating locations,'' Krischik said. The current agreement is for six months. Flights will arrive at the Manta airfield from U.S. air bases and stay for a number of days, carrying out surveillance flights over drug-producing regions in Central and South America, he said. The airfield in Manta will not be a U.S. base and will be run by the Ecuadorean air force, Krischik said. U.S. forces will feed information on drug trafficking to local anti-drug forces. The base will be staffed by eight to 15 Americans, but the number could swell to 250 if patrol flights increase. Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, Ecuador's South American neighbors, produce nearly all of the world's cocaine. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea