LIMA -- Thousands of Peruvian coca leaf farmers marched into Lima yesterday demanding the government halt plans to eradicate their cash crop, the raw ingredient of cocaine, and free their jailed leader.

Men, women and children, who have traveled for over a week on foot from jungle areas where coca leaf is a staple crop, marched with flags and banners from the outskirts of Peru's sprawling capital toward the presidential palace.

''[We want] President Alejandro Toledo to listen to our demands and make good on his promises,'' Marisela Guillen, secretary general of the Agricultural Producers' Association of the Apurimac-Ene River Valleys, said.

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LIMA, Peru - The United States could flop in its fight to curb the drugs trade and the threat of terror if it does not soon open its market to select goods from the Andean region, which churns out almost all of the world's cocaine, Peru's top trade negotiator said on Wednesday.

"The biggest risk isn't that (Peru's) economy won't take off, but that drug trafficking and terrorism -- issues that the United States cares about -- get worse," Alfredo Ferrero, deputy minister for integration and international trade negotiations, told Reuters.

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