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Bomb kills 7 at port in Colombia

Seven people were killed and 38 injured Sunday when a bomb exploded at a busy waterfront in central Colombia, authorities said, blaming leftist rebels for the attack.

The bomb exploded about 10:00am at a dock in the town of Puerto Rico, just after a boat carrying 56 people moored at a dock on the Ariari River, Army General Luis Eduardo Barboza said.

A woman was carrying the bomb inside a box, he said. She died in the blast. Two children also were among the dead.

A senior local official, Wilson Munoz, said 10 people were seriously injured. They were to be transported to hospitals by aircraft, he said.

He blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for the bombing, saying the group "doesn't respect any parameters of human rights." He said the woman may have unwittingly brought the bomb to the dock.

"It was horrendous. There are many body parts, not all the people could be identified. We're working to see if there are more than six dead," Munoz said.

The explosion happened near a busy marketplace, he added.

The rebel group, known as FARC, has a strong presence in the region.

Rebels attacked an army counter-guerrilla batallion in the center of Puerto Rico, some 280km south of Bogota, as rescuers were attending to the injured, Munoz said.

Town authorities said the army and guerrillas had been involved in clashes some 7km from the town, leaving one rebel dead.

Army reinforcements were being sent into the area.

In a separate incident, rebels bombed a stretch of the Limon-Covenas pipeline, the country's main oil pipeline. Army general Eduardo Morales said major damage had been caused in the attack at Araquita, in the eastern province of Arauca.

Some 70 US troops are based in the area to train Colombian troops tasked with protecting the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the FARC's second-in-command, Raul Reyes, said in interviews published Sunday in Brazil that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had responded positively to his request to mediate negotiations between the guerrillas and the Colombian government.

Reyes gave few details, but told the Estado de Sao Paulo and Folha de Sao Paulo dailies Annan sent a "very positive reply" indicating a strong interest in opening a dialogue.

A report published Sunday in El Espectador meanwhile said FARC and National Liberation Army leaders were discussing an alliance.

They had recently met, the publication said, to coordinate their position on the government's security policy, and cited a joint statement out of Tolima province two weeks ago accusing government forces and right-wing paramilitaries of collaborating.

And in a vast operation in Tolima, police arrested 60 people Sunday, including a priest, accusing them of collaborating with the guerrillas.
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