Rebels say still open to Colombia hostage talks

BOGOTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) Colombian left-wing rebels holding former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt hostage said she was still being held in Colombia and they were open to talks on her release.

Snatched in February 2002, dual French-Colombian national Betancourt has become a symbol of kidnapping in Colombia, where politicians, police and soldiers have been held for as long as nine years as part of Latin America's oldest guerrilla war.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has repeatedly called for President Alvaro Uribe to remove troops from a rural area the size of New York City to initiate talks to exchange jailed rebels for Betancourt and 60 key hostages.

''The liberation of Ingrid Betancourt and all the prisoners held by both sides could now be part of history if Uribe would yield to the demilitarization,'' rebel leader Commander Ivan Marquez said in a statement posted on the FARC Web site late Friday.

''In spite of everything, the prisoner exchange is still open for the FARC.'' Political analysts see the government and the rebels deadlocked and far from reaching any accord on talks over hostage release.

Uribe, whose US-funded security policies have reduced violence, has ordered armed forces to rescue hostages and refused to demilitarise an area on rebel terms. But fearing for the safety of hostages, families want him to negotiate.

A previous attempt by Uribe's predecessor, Andres Pastrana, to reach peace with the rebels by demilitarising a jungle area the size of Switzerland failed when the FARC used the free zone to regroup, recruit and rearm.

In a concession, Uribe late on Friday authorised the wife of one kidnapped senator to reach out to the FARC in an effort to open negotiations on hostage release.

The FARC, which began as a peasant army fighting for land reform in the 1960s, but is now deeply involved in cocaine smuggling, uses kidnappings for ransom and to gain political leverage. Among the hostages are three US Defense Department contractors captured in 2003.

Betancourt, 45, was an independent presidential candidate when she and her vice presidential hopeful were seized while traveling a remote jungle road. She was last heard from in a video released by the rebels in 2003.

REUTERS SBA RN0433