The total represents a tenfold increase in anti-drug aid from five years earlier.

But the law exempts humanitarian and anti-drug aid.

Under current policy and budget allocations, Colombia is the primary recipient of American anti-drug aid.

For their part, two Mexican officials expressed concern that behind Washington's eagerness to provide new anti-drug aid is an effort to gain political leverage.

General McCaffrey has warned of a drug crisis in Colombia, and has lobbied for Congressional approval of a $1.6 billion package of anti-drug aid.

The Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth H. Bacon, disputed the idea that the two directions of American anti-drug aid in Mexico were at cross purposes.

Next month American drug advisers are to leave the Santa Lucia base as part of a 50 percent cut in total anti-drug aid to Peru.

Then, in 2001, President Andrés Pastrana, whose government became the recipient of sharply increased anti-drug aid from Washington, sent 26 Colombians to the United States.

With the United States no longer giving counterinsurgency military aid to any country in South America, anti-drug aid is often seen as the only way to go for cash-strapped armies.

Peruvian officials are also concerned about a resurgence in coca production in the last year and are worried about proposals in Congress to cut their anti-drug aid.