Bush may raise Berenson case

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - The case of an American woman imprisoned in Peru for terrorism is on the list of President Bush's talking points for a Saturday meeting with President Alejandro Toledo, but there is no guarantee the topic will come up, senior administration officials said Friday. 

Bush flies from Mexico to the Peruvian capital of Lima on Saturday and is scheduled to have nearly an hour of one-on-one talks with Toledo at the presidential palace. 

A meeting agenda drawn up by White House puts the case of Lori Berenson - and U.S. concerns about her treatment in the justice system - on the list, but ``low on the list,'' an administration official said Friday on condition of anonymity. 

``And who knows if the president will get to it,'' this official continued. 

Higher on the list are discussions about regional trade, Peru's democratic reforms and fighting drugs. 

The Berenson issue is tricky for Bush, who has steadfastly vowed a ``zero tolerance'' policy toward terrorists following the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Berenson, 32, was initially sentenced to life in 1996 by a military court of hooded judges for being a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, but that sentence was overturned in 2000. 

A civilian court subsequently sentenced Berenson in June to 20 years in prison for helping the Tupac Amaru rebels plot a thwarted attempt to seize Peru's Congress in 1995. The New York state native was acquitted of being a member of the rebel group. The Supreme Court upheld both decisions in February. 

Berenson maintains that she is innocent and that her concerns for social justice were wrongly portrayed in Peru as a terrorist agenda. 

A second senior administration official, asked on Friday whether Bush would raise Berenson's case in discussions with Toledo, replied only that the issue remains on the United States' broader agenda in Peru. This official described Bush's interest in Berenson as part of his routine concern for the well-being and fair treatment of any U.S. citizen abroad. 

Last weekend, her father, Mark Berenson, said he hoped Bush would seek her release. ``As a father, I expect the president of the United States will bring up Lori in some manner,'' he said. 

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