Director of the weekly Communist paper "Voz", Carlos Lozano Guillen stated today that the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe had given orders for a military rescue operation to free FARC hostages, among them former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt.

"This rescue would be carried out through "force" which would endanger the lives of the hostages", stated the Communist leader at a conference on methods of communication and the conflict.

Carlos Lozano, who stated he had been informed the previous week that Uribe had given the order, did not reveal the source of the information; he added that the rescue operation involved several politicians as well as soldiers and policemen also held hostage.

FARC are holding 22 politicians, 34 military and police and three Americans - some have been held for up to seven years - who they wish to exchange for 500 imprisoned rebels.

Apart from Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped in February 2002 in Caquetá (south -west) and who has also French nationality, there are also several former members of Congress, some former regional deputies of the Valley of Cauca department, a former minister and a former governor.

There are also American contractors Marc Gonzales, Thomas Howe and Keith Stansell, kidnapped in the Caquetá forests in February 2003 after rebels had shot down a 'tourist' plane in which they were carrying out spying operations for the US Defence Department of illegally grown crops.

According to International Law, the hostages could have been exchanged by means of a humanitarian agreement that FARC and the government were unable to bring about over three years.

The rebels want the demilitarisation of two communities for a month in the Cauca valley to hold negotiations there. But the government is opposed, being of the opinion that this would constitute a strategic corridor between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean and proposes that talks be held in a small village in the area for a period of ten days.

At the beginning of the year military forces launched the Patriot Plan in the southwest, a huge offensive against FARC, whose chiefs stated that these had endangered the lives of hostages, in certain cases.

Last September, Yolanda Pulecio, Ingrid Betancourt's mother, asked President Uribe not to undertake a military rescue operation.