WASHINGTON, United States – The Bush administration needs to change free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama in order to win their approval in Congress, said senior Democrats.

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, told reporters he believed Democrats and the Bush administration were close to a deal on a long list of trade concerns his party had raised.

"We are on the brink of restoring bipartisanship to trade policies," Rangel said.

That will require changing labour provisions of the Peru and Colombia agreements to include an enforceable commitment to abide by core international labour standards, said Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Ways and Means trade subcommittee.

Those pacts and another agreement with Panama would also have to be changed to ensure intellectual property rights provisions do not prevent poor people in those countries from having access to life-saving drugs, he added.

Both Peru and Colombia – along with Ecuador and Bolivia – currently have duty-free access to the United States market for many of their goods under United States legislation that expires in June.

Levin said Democrats hoped to approve legislation to renew trade benefits for all four countries for two years.

Democrats, who won control of the United States Congress in November elections, have long pushed for stronger labour provisions in US free trade pacts.

Levin said he believed the Peru agreement would pass easily if Democrats were able to reach a deal with the Bush administration on all their concerns. (Reuters)