Bogota - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama on his election victory, and said he was sure that the two countries would continue to cooperate.

Uribe, widely regarded as US President George W Bush's main ally in Latin America, said his government's main interest in further cooperation lay in the fights against drug trafficking and terrorism.

Uribe recalled that it was the Democratic administration of president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) that launched the Plan Colombia, a strategy to combat the drug trade and, in so doing, the rebels, whom Bogota accuses of having ties to the drug trade.

Colombia "will make every effort for that policy to continue," Uribe said, in the face of analysts' comments indicating that a Democratic government might cut funds for the plan.

Uribe admitted that he has had a close relationship with John McCain, the Republican candidate who lost to Democrat Obama, but he admitted that he has also had good ties with Democrats like former US presidents Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Moreover, he stressed that he has talked "an awful lot" to vice president-elect Joe Biden, in the effort - failed so far - to convince Democratic senators to approve the free-trade agreement the two countries signed in late 2006.

The Colombian Congress has already approved the deal, but the US Congress has refused to discuss it amid human rights concerns. (dpa)