Eight dead in pre-inauguration attacks in Colombia

OGOTA, Colombia, Aug 5 (Reuters) Eight Colombians, most of them police and soldiers, were killed in attacks by left-wing rebels in a show of force three days before conservative President Alvaro Uribe starts his second term.

Five police officers and a civilian died in a car bomb explosion in the city of Cali and two soldiers were gunned down while searching for explosives in the southwestern province of Tolima, where the guerrillas have a strong presence yesterday.

The violence, aimed at Colombia's security forces, brought this week's death toll to 32 as Monday's inauguration approaches.

The car bomb went off in front of a police station. The civilian who died was seated in the car that exploded. Police said it appeared he had been ''used'' by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the bombing. No further details were available.

President Alvaro Uribe, popular for his US-backed crackdown on the FARC, easily won reelection in May. His first inauguration in 2002 was marred by a guerrilla missile attack that killed 21 civilians in a poor neighborhood near the presidential palace.

Colombia, gripped by a four-decade-old insurgency, often sees an increase in violence around elections and inaugurations.

''This time the guerrillas are targeting the army and police and trying to avoid civilian casualties in an effort to present themselves as a political rather than a terrorist group,'' said German Espejo of the Bogota think tank Security and Democracy.

''The FARC has asked the European Union to take it off its list of terrorist organizations. If it hopes to be taken off that list, and increase its legitimacy ahead of any possible peace talks, it must avoid killing civilians,'' Espejo said.

Dozens of presidents and foreign dignitaries are expected to attend Monday's ceremony. The US delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The United States has given billions of dollars in aid to Colombia to combat drug-running rebels who say they are fighting to close the wide gap that divides rich and poor in this Andean country. Thousands are killed in the conflict every year.

Despite Uribe's crackdown, Colombia remains the world's biggest cocaine exporter and the 17,000-strong FARC still controls wide swathes of countryside.

The group killed 17 soldiers and one civilian in bombing attacks on Monday while six peasants hired by the government to rip out illicit crops planted by the FARC were killed by land mines on Wednesday.

Reuters VJ GC0504