On Capitol Hill, Democrats say they plan to indefinitely delay a vote on a controversial trade agreement with Colombia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers need more time to consider the deal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “We would hope that some of those initiatives would be acceptable to the President, funded and signed into law, and then we can consider the merits of a — and only then could we consider the merits of a Colombia Free Trade Agreement. We have concerns about the job loss in our country. We have concerns about the treatment of workers and their organizers in Colombia. But we stand ready to have those conversations as long as the President wants to put American workers and their families first.”

The Bush administration has been lobbying feverishly for the trade deal. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a delay would undermine US standing in Latin America.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “If this strong friend of America, who has done all the right things to try to bring his country to stability, democracy, and prosperity, and has done so as an avowed friend of America, fighting terrorists on one side, trying to demobilize paramilitaries on another, and standing strong against very hostile anti-American states and forces in Latin America, what will it say if the United States turns its back now on Colombia?”

Labor unions and human rights organizations have been pushing Congress to reject the treaty, in part because Colombia has the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world. According to Human Rights Watch, seventeen trade unionists have been killed in Colombia in the first three months of this year.