President Hugo Chavez's government has soldiers and police ready to receive hostages that Colombian rebels have promised to free, an official said Thursday.

Special units are waiting for orders from Chavez to receive the Colombian captives, Justice Minister Pedro Carreno told The Associated Press. It remains unclear where or when the release could take place.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, announced this week that it would hand over three hostages to Chavez, including an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and the aide's young son.

"With our operational units ... we will implement actions to guarantee the security and lives not only of the kidnapped people who are going to be freed, but also of those who are going to turn them over," Carreno told the AP.

He said the troops and police would protect any FARC emissaries involved in the hand-over so that "it doesn't turn out like it did when they brought proof of life and were detained."

Last month, Colombian authorities detained three people on suspicion of collaborating with the FARC as they carried videos and letters from some of the hostages. Chavez said the materials were intended to be given to him as part of his effort to mediate a swap of hostages for government prisoners and that the Colombian government stymied the delivery.

The FARC pledged in an e-mail Tuesday to free Betancourt aide Clara Rojas, Rojas' son Emmanuel, and Consuelo Gonzalez, a former congresswoman kidnapped in 2001. Emmanuel, reportedly born of a relationship between Rojas and a guerrilla fighter, is thought to be about 3.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the hostage drama with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Thursday. France has been pressing for the release of Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen who has been held for nearly six years.

The FARC has offered to release 46 high-profile hostages, including Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors, in return for the release of hundreds of rebels held in Colombian and U.S. prisons.

Chavez was trying to negotiate such a swap before President Alvaro Uribe called him off last month, saying Chavez overstepped his mandate by directly contacting the head of Colombia's army. Chavez has since frozen relations with the U.S.-allied Uribe.

While the news of the FARC's decision to free three hostages has been greeted by relatives as a major breakthrough, the FARC's chief spokesman, Raul Reyes, suggested on a rebel Web site Thursday that it might take a new government to reach an agreement.

"The immediate resignation of Uribe and his entire government would guarantee the freeing of the prisoners alive," Reyes said, apparently referring to a wider hostages-for-prisoners swap.

Reyes made no reference to the FARC's announcement that it would free the three hostages.