The United States says it will resume drugs surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia, which were suspended last year after an innocent plane was shot down, killing two American missionaries.

But the State Department will take over control of the operation from the CIA.

Officials in Washington also said there would be strict regulations to identify suspected aircrafts, and that all the American crews would be Spanish-speakers, to avoid more fatal mistakes.

A US Senate inquiry blamed the shooting down of the missionaries' plane on the Peruvian Air Force - but also criticised what it called poor management by the CIA.

The Peruvian and Colombian governments say that in the absence of aerial surveillance, the drugs trade has flourished.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service