By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police discovered a roadside bomb
          outside a town hours before a U.S. senator and U.S. ambassador were
          to visit, a Colombian police commander said Friday.

          Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson
          were the likely targets, Police Col. Jose Miguel Villar said.

          But in Washington, a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of
          anonymity said it was not yet clear that the target was the
          Wellstone-Patterson party.

          Patterson told State Department officials by telephone that she did not
          see it as an assassination attempt, a department official said. Another
          State Department official added that it is not unusual for such devices to
          be found in Barrancabermeja, considering the town's reputation for
          violence.

          Hours before the two U.S. officials flew into Barrancabermeja on
          Thursday, police discovered two shrapnel-wrapped land mines alongside
          the road leading from the airport to the town and arrested a suspected
          rebel, Villar said.

          The land mines each carried a 6.6-pound explosive charge, were
          attached to cables and a detonator and were ready to be set off, Villar
          said in a phone interview from Barrancabermeja, 155 miles north of
          Bogota, the capital.

          Bernardo Alvarez Duarte, a suspected member of the rebel National
          Liberation Army, or ELN, was arrested at the site, Villar said.

          ``If the bomb had gone off, it could have caused immense damage,''
          Villar said. ``It would have spread shrapnel over a wide area and could
          have taken out 10 or 15 people.''

          Patterson said she had received sketchy reports about the bomb as the
          delegation departed Barrancabermeja.

          Many residents of Barrancabermeja had known the U.S. delegation was
          going to arrive. But security forces had kept confidential plans to transfer
          the party from the airport to the town by helicopter. Even if the bombs
          had exploded, the delegation would not have gone anywhere near them.

          Villar said the Americans were probably the target of the bomb, but he
          could not absolutely confirm it. Alvarez, the arrested man, was being
          questioned for further information.

          Washington supports the Colombian military in its fight against the ELN
          and a bigger rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
          or FARC.

          Barrancabermeja is the most violent town in Colombia, with almost 500
          politically related murders this year alone, according to human rights
          activists. Right-wing paramilitary squads and rebels have been preying on
          the townspeople and fighting for control of the region.

          Wellstone, a second-term senator and a member of the foreign relations
          committee, arrived in Colombia on Tuesday night and was departing on
          Friday. He visited Barrancabermeja to lend support to human rights
          activists there.