BOGOTA,  (Reuters) – Most illegal flights hauling  Colom-bian drugs to Central America and the United States are now  leaving from Venezuela, Colombia’s Defense Minister Gabriel Silva  said yesterday.  

The charge could further raise tensions between the Andean  neighbors currently embroiled in a diplomatic standoff that has  begun to damage bilateral trade of some $7 billion a year.  

Traffickers in Colombia, still the world’s No. 1 cocaine  producer, use Venezuela as a transit route to reach markets in the  United States and Europe, and also smuggle through the Caribbean,  Africa, Central America and Mexico.  

“The number of radar tracks that are detected coming out of  Colombia is marginal. Unfortunately the number of tracks detected  and that end in the area around Honduras … pass through  Venezuelan territory,” Silva told reporters.  

U.S. authorities say Venezuela has become a major transit  route for Colombian traffickers. Traffickers now use shipping  routes and even submarines to transport cocaine from Colombia  across the Pacific to Central America and the Mexican coast.  

The government of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, a fierce  U.S. critic, has accused Colombian state agents of allowing drugs  to be smuggled through his country. He rejects charges his  government fails to tackle drug trafficking.  

Ties between Caracas and Bogota have been roiled by a decision  by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to allow U.S. military forces  more access to Colombian bases as part of cooperation to fight  drug traffickers and leftist rebels.