WASHINGTON, March 12: A key US senator Tuesday drew quizzical looks from Secretary of State Colin Powell and other officials when he suggested in a rambling discourse that Colombian President Andres Pastrana and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon trade places.

Senator Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, made the remark as he questioned Powell on US assistance to Colombia during a Senate budget subcommittee hearing.

“Maybe you can get Pastrana to Israel and Sharon to Colombia, maybe that swap would really get us going somewhere,” Hollings said to Powell’s surprise.

“I see you don’t want to comment,” he said to the secretary after the comment met uneasy silence in the hearing room.

“No, sir,” Powell replied to laughter from the audience.

It was not immediately clear what Hollings meant by making the suggestion, which was described as “very bizarre” by one senior US official who attended the hearing.

Pastrana last month called off three years of on-again, off-again peace talks with leftist rebels and initiated an offensive against them.—AFP