Colombia's FARC rebel group has contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross to return the bodies of 11 kidnapped lawmakers who died while in its hands, ICRC officials said Monday.

Yves Heller, spokesman for the ICRC's Colombia office, told AFP that the Colombian government has also given its approval for efforts to recover the bodies of the 11.

But the ICRC has insisted that the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which still holds scores of hostages, must guarantee the security of the team to handle the repatriation of the bodies.

"In the interest of the families of the victims and the success of the operation, it needs to be carried out in a confidential and discreet manner before all the interested parties," ICRC said.

It also said that while it wants the bodies turned over as quickly as possible, "no date or place has been set" for the handover.

Ruby Jaramillo, the wife of Nacianceno Orozco, one of the killed deputies, confirmed to AFP that she had been contacted by the ICRC over the possible return of the bodies.

The offer came after FARC claimed nearly two weeks ago that the 11 lawmakers were killed in the "crossfire" during a raid on one of its camps on June 18 by what it described as an "unidentified military group."

The government has denied that its forces were involved in any battle with the FARC camp, and accused the guerrilla group of murdering the hostages.

The 11 were among 56 hostages FARC, an army of some 17,000 guerrillas which has been fighting the government for decades, has said it wants to swap for hundreds of FARC members taken prisoner by the government.

The FARC hostages include French-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last month released 150 jailed FARC rebels, including one of its leaders, Rodrigo Granda, hoping for a reciprocal release of some of its high-profile hostages.

But so far no such prisoner swap has taken place.