Colombian rebels say Uribe victory illegitimate

BOGOTA, Colombia, June 2 (Reuters) Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's re-election is a victory for the United States, but it is illegitimate because of the low voter turnout, the country's main rebel group said.

Uribe, Washington's strongest ally in South America, won 62 percent of votes cast on Sunday, easily winning a second four-year term. But the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said yesterday his mandate lacks credibility because of an abstention rate of about 55 percent.

''Uribe only won 27.5 percent of all possible votes ... It is an illegitimate victory,'' said a statement posted on the FARC's Web site.

''The strategy of domination of the White House won a beachhead with this re-election,'' the statement said.

Uribe is popular for cutting urban crime and sparking economic growth as part of his U.S.-backed military crackdown on the FARC, which uses this Andean country's cocaine trade to finance its four-decade-old war against the state.

The 17,000-strong rebel group says it is fighting for socialism in a country with deep divisions between rich and poor, but even mainstream leftist politicians say the group has scant popular support.

The government is in preliminary peace talks with Colombia's second biggest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN. But the FARC has so far rejected Uribe's conditions for starting negotiations.

Reuters PDS VP0552