PANAMANIAN DE FACTO CULTURE MINISTER SPEAKS DURING REUTERS INTERVIEW IN PANAMA CITY, 2002-05-29 (photo)

Panama's de-facto Culture Minister Rafael Ruiloba tells Reuters more than 30 colonial-era shipwrecks laden with treasure worth hundreds of millions of dollars are scattered along Panama's Caribbean and Pacific coasts, during an interview in Panama City May 29, 2002. Ruiloba, who heads Panama's National Cultural Institute, says modern day pirates posing as salvage shipping companies are looting the ships on an almost daily basis. Ruiloba points to stone canon balls that were found in November on the sunken Spanish Conquest-era galleon Vizcaina off Panama's Caribbean coastREUTERS/Alberto Lowe TO MATCH INTERVIEW PANAMA-SHIPWRECKS AL/SV