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Before any face-to-face meeting can take place, however, the rebels must agree to swap 15 hostages for 15 rebels jailed on minor charges, said Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo.
Despite mistrust on both sides, Restrepo said the government is willing to release the 15 jailed rebels first, provided the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, at least expresses a willingness to reciprocate.
"All we're looking for is a minimum sign of hope and we will start the ball rolling," Restrepo told local radio.
After any initial prisoner exchange, the meeting, which could last up to five days, would take place in the Vatican's embassy in Bogota or at another diplomatic mission in the capital, according to the government proposal, which was first announced Thursday night and then amplified upon Friday.
The FARC had no immediate response.
The proposal calls for a total of 50 jailed rebels to be freed in return for about 60 prisoners held by the FARC in jungle hideouts. The FARC's hostages include politicians, police officers, soldiers and three U.S. contractors whose small plane crashed in rebel-held territory early last year.
Restrepo said the government would allow the Red Cross to escort FARC negotiators to the capital and would return them home when the talks end, accompanied by Roman Catholic Church representatives.
Augusto Castro, vice president of the Catholic Church's ruling body in Colombia, said he hopes the FARC reacts positively.
"This proposal addresses the need to find a solution at a time when we are all concerned about being on a street with no exits," said Castro.
The previous administration of President Andres Pastrana held face-to-face peace talks with the FARC for three years inside a Switzerland-sized safe haven in the jungles and cattle country of southern Colombia. Those talks collapsed, and the safe haven was rescinded in 2002 after FARC rebels hijacked an airliner and kidnapped a senator who was aboard.
In their last communique, the FARC on Oct. 20 said it wanted two new safe havens to be created in southern Colombia in which talks on a prisoner exchange would be held. The government rejected providing additional safe havens to the rebels.
The FARC and a smaller rebel group have been battling a succession of elected governments in this Andean nation for 40 years.
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