TIM JOHNSON
             Herald Staff Writer

             BOGOTA, Colombia -- Fresh from celebrating peace with Ecuador, Peruvian
             President Alberto Fujimori is now quarreling with Colombia, deploying more
             troops along their common border and declaring that Colombia's problems
             threaten regional stability.

             Fujimori's aggressive posture took Colombians by surprise. President Andres
             Pastrana on Monday called some of Fujimori's remarks in ``bad taste'' and said his
             government wouldn't permit ``meddling.''

             His comments came in response to Fujimori's sudden decision on Sunday to order
             an undetermined number of Peruvian soldiers redeployed from the now-relaxed
             border with Ecuador to the 1,125-mile Amazon frontier with Colombia. Both
             Marxist guerrillas and drug traffickers in Colombia threaten Peru, Foreign Minister
             Fernando de Trazegnies said Monday.

             ``This is a problem that could spill over into Peru, and in this sense it worries us,''
             he told Colombia's RCN radio network. ``This isn't a militarization. These are
             reinforcements for Peruvian positions along the border.''

             The frictions began last week when Fujimori was in Washington to celebrate his
             nation's 4-month-old peace accord with Ecuador, a traditional foe. While in
             Washington, Fujimori dwelt on Colombia in a speech at the Inter-American
             Defense College.

             ``It alarms us that beyond our borders a new threat is taking shape,'' Fujimori said,
             declaring that Colombian rebels threaten ``our regional security.''

             Abandoning diplomatic tact, Fujimori said he disagreed with Pastrana's strategy of
             launching peace talks last month with the 15,000-member Revolutionary Armed
             Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, a group that he noted is heavily armed and
             involved in drug trafficking.

             ``We can't imagine what kind of concessions a state could offer to obtain peace
             with those who want to destroy it,'' Fujimori said.

             FARC rebels, who have grown more numerous this decade, use jungle regions of
             Ecuador as a rear-guard area and an arms smuggling route, and occasionally
             kidnap ranchers in neighboring Venezuela and penetrate into Panama.

             Fujimori last week said the FARC guerrillas have also been entering Peruvian
             territory, beginning in 1993, and have killed Peruvian soldiers.

             Late last week, Colombian Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez called in Peru's
             ambassador in Bogota for a dressing down over Fujimori's remarks.

             Fujimori announced the deployment of more troops along the border with
             Colombia after a four-hour meeting in Lima on Sunday with military joint chiefs,
             intelligence advisor Vladimiro Montesinos and other top security officials.

             He declared that the redeployment is designed to ``combat, neutralize and
             capture'' FARC rebels in Peruvian territory.

             In reaction, and sounding alternately angry and dismissive, Pastrana said he would
             pay little heed to Fujimori's decision.

             ``I'm not worried about it,'' he said. ``Clearly there are two totally different styles
             of governing and of thinking about peace. The only thing that the Colombian
             government cannot accept is that there may be meddling by another government in
             this process.''
 

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