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Chavez presses bid to mediate with FARC

"I have made a plan, but here the help of the Colombian government and the rebels is a must ... I want to be helpful, but the Colombian people have to help me. If the Colombian government and the rebels remain inflexible, what am I supposed to do?"

Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday pressed his efforts to play a role as intermediary with Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, urging his Colombian counterpart to let him meet in Colombia with the guerillas' chief, and suggesting France's leader could join the talks.

"President [Alvaro] Uribe asked me to help. I want to help. I make the formal request before the world: let me talk with [Manuel] Marulanda in Colombia," Chavez said on television, naming the head of the guerrilla movement.

Chavez asked Uribe to come too, adding that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had offered to come with him to meet Marulanda in Caguan, southern Colombia.

"Accompany me," Chavez said, addressing Uribe. "Sarkozy told me that he can even come with me to Caguan."

"I am trying to mediate and I will continue. I have made a plan, but here the help of the Colombian government and the rebels is a must," he said. "I want to be helpful, but the Colombian people have to help me. If the Colombian government and the rebels remain inflexible, what am I supposed to do?"

But in Colombia the conservative Uribe, the US' close regional ally, swiftly nixed the idea.

The leftist Venezuelan leader has sought to use his influence to mediate between the Marxist guerrillas and Uribe, in part by trying to negotiate the release of 45 hostages held by FARC.

They have demanded in return the release of hundreds of their own members held by Colombian authorities.

Among those held by FARC is a high-profile hostage, the dual nationality French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. Sarkozy has pressed for a "humanitarian accord" to secure the hostages' release. Betancourt was seized in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidential election.

On Friday, at a gathering in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Chavez indicated he had received a message from Marulanda but did not address the content.

Earlier, Colombia's government indicated it did not want Chavez to travel to Colombia to negotiate a hostage swap with FARC.

Then on Saturday, asked about Chavez's remarks, Uribe appeared to reiterate this stance.

"What already has been said does not need to be repeated," Uribe told local radio in Rionegro, Colombia.

"Don't ask me to talk about these things publicly," Uribe told reporters. "You already know my position on that."

Over his more than six years of government, Uribe has said his administration would not demilitarize any part of Colombian territory to negotiate with FARC rebels, which was done during the government of his predecessor Andres Pastrana, in an effort to get peace talks started.

FARC is Latin America's largest and longest-fighting insurgency.

France, the US and Argentina have welcomed the Venezuelan leader's efforts to mediate.

FARC, whose hostages also include three Americans, want the government to create a demilitarized zone to conduct the exchange, but Uribe has refused to provide such a safe haven.

Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo warned earlier this month that Bogota believed direct intervention by Chavez was not viable.
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