Something to chew on: a salad with coca leaves?

LIMA, Peru — President Alan Garcia on Tuesday suggested an unorthodox use for the coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine: Why not toss it in a salad?

"I insist that it can be consumed directly and elegantly in salad," Garcia told foreign correspondents.

Garcia's comments put him in the company of leftist presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who have publicly promoted mixing the high-calcium leaf into everything from toothpaste to soft drinks.

Coca has for centuries been considered a medicinal and ceremonial plant in Andean culture, and Garcia said it should not be vilified solely for producing the illegal narcotic.

For years, the U.S. has pressed Andean nations to fight production of the drug.

Garcia pledged during an October meeting with President Bush to continue a policy of manual eradication and to pursue programs to replace coca with alternative crops.

Peru permits cultivation of about 25,000 acres of coca for chewing and for sale to companies that produce pharmaceutical cocaine, package coca tea or produce extracts used in soft drinks. But experts say more than 90 percent of Peruvian coca is grown illegally to fuel the cocaine trade.