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Bogota asks three EU countries to resume mediation

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy today after inviting France, Spain and Switzerland to resume their mediation role in an effort to free 44 hostages held by Marxist rebels, his office said.

Uribe announced on Saturday he had authorized France, Spain and Switzerland to return to their mediation efforts before a European tour starting in Paris where he will address the hostage issue with Sarkozy, who has closely followed the case of French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt.

"We had suspended the mediation of the delegates of Switzerland, Spain and France a few months ago," Uribe said. "Two nights ago [Wednesday] we reactivated it."

Uribe spoke on the eve of his trip to France, Brussels, Spain and Switzerland to explain Bogota's policy on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the EU and the US consider a terrorist group.

Uribe said the European trio should support a mediation effort being led by Colombia's influential Roman Catholic church.

The FARC wants to swap 44 of its hostages for 500 rebels held in Colombian prisons.

France, Spain and Switzerland angered Uribe in June when they issued a statement asking Colombia's government to seek a deal with the FARC and recommending that a commission be created to investigate the death of 11 lawmakers held by the rebels.

"We will not accept such disrespect for our democracy as putting the government at the same level as the terrorists of the FARC," Uribe said at the time.
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