BOGOTA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Colombia's military has voiced strong
                  objections to government plans to order a troop pullout from a vast swath of
                  national territory to promote peace talks with the country's leading Marxist
                  guerrilla group.

                  The army's opposition to the pullout, which President Andres Pastrana has
                  said he will order by the end of this year, was made clear on Wednesday in
                  excerpts from a document published in Bogota's El Tiempo newspaper.

                  Military sources confirmed the authenticity of the document, entitled
                  "Expectations for Peace," and called it a white paper or "analysis" drafted by
                  the armed forces high command at the request of Pastrana himself.

                  But Defence Minister Rodrigo Lloreda told a news conference the document
                  was drawn up before Pastrana's Aug. 7 inauguration, apparently on orders
                  from then armed forces commander Gen. Manuel Jose Bonnet.

                  In the document, the military stressed that any troop pullout was likely to be
                  riddled with hidden costs and concessions to the the Revolutionary Armed
                  Forces of Colombia (FARC).

                  Among other objections, the document said Colombia's U.S.-backed drug
                  crop eradication programme would suffer as a result, since much of the area
                  earmarked for demilitarization is dedicated to the cultivation and processing
                  of opium poppy crops and coca, the raw material for cocaine.

                  It said the troop pullout would also mean the loss of army control over
                  "strategic areas" and allow the FARC to strengthen its presence in the
                  region, which encompasses vast tracts of jungle and savanna in the country's
                  south and east.

                  Under the planned troop pullout, the government would effectively cede
                  control over five sprawling municipalities -- an area the size of Switzerland --
                  to the FARC.

                  Pastrana agreed to the demilitarization in secretive face-to-face talks in July
                  with legendary FARC commander Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the head
                  of Latin America's largest and most powerful guerrilla army.

                  The military conceded that the demilitarization would probably help boost
                  the government's image abroad, since it would be perceived as a move for
                  peace and the greater good.

                  But it advised against turning over any urban areas in the five municipalities
                  to the FARC, and said a strict time limit should be set on any pullout, with
                  no scope for extensions after the government's initial offer of 90 days.

                  Furthermore, the military advised against any troop withdrawal from San
                  Vicente del Caguan, the biggest of the five municipalities earmarked for
                  demilitarization.

                  San Vicente should be excluded, it said, because it was the effective
                  command centre of the FARC and of extreme importance strategically, since
                  it was a well-known corridor for the movement of rebels into three
                  surrounding provinces.

                  By relinquishing its control over San Vicente, the military warned that the
                  government would also be giving the FARC dominance over the Caguan
                  River, a key transport route through the country's southern jungle and the
                  Llanos del Yari, a nerve centre of the booming drug trade in southern
                  Caqueta province.

                  The document in El Tiempo was made public during an official visit to
                  Colombia by Gen. Charles Wilhelm, chief of the Miami-based U.S.
                  Southern Command.

                  Pastrana has pledged to make ending Colombia's decades-old internal
                  conflict a top priority of his administration.

                  Lloreda, who was flanked at the news conference by Bonnet's successor
                  Gen. Fernando Tapias, added that the document had been leaked to El
                  Tiempo by people clearly seeking to "frustrate the peace process."

                  Tapias, who took over as military chief last month, said "the armed forces
                  are committed to the peace process."

                  Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.