ENVOYS MEET FARC TO TALK PEACE

LOS POZOS, Colombia -- Diplomats from 25 countries met leaders of
Colombia's main leftist guerrillas in their stronghold Thursday to discuss
efforts to end a 37-year-old war. But the United States, which helps
finance a plan to cut drug-production in rebel territory, did not attend.

The meeting in the remote village of Los Pozos was called by Colombian
President Andres Pastrana and Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the top
commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to prod
along a slow-moving peace process to end a war that has killed 35,000
civilians in the last 10 years.

The one-day gathering is the first time members of the international
community have been invited by the government and the 17,000-member FARC to
join in the dialogue to end the hemisphere's longest and bloodiest conflict.

Clad in combat fatigues, the veteran Marulanda greeted ambassadors and
diplomats from across the Americas and Europe as well as Japan as they
arrived in the remote hamlet, located in the heart of a vast territory in
southern Colombia that Pastrana temporarily ceded to the FARC two years ago
to start peace talks.

The United States, which is contributing $1 billion in mostly military aid
for an offensive against cocaine producers in rebel-held jungles, refused
invitations by Pastrana and the FARC to participate in the meeting, which
was attended by Cuba.

While Washington says it supports Pastrana's peace efforts, it has insisted
it will not meet face-to-face with the FARC until it accounts for the 1999
murder of three Americans.

Marulanda held the door open to future U.S. participation.

"If they don't want to come that's their business. We've invited them
several times," he said, adding, "It may be that they come in the future."

Heading the government's delegation for the closed-door conference was
peace commissioner Camilo Gomez.

Last June, the FARC hosted a gathering of international diplomats but the
theme of that meeting was peaceful ways to combat the booming drug trade
that experts say fuels the war.

In the past, the FARC, a 1960s-era peasant army with socialist aims such as
land reform and wealth redistribution, objected to foreign countries
monitoring either peace talks or conditions in its Switzerland-sized enclave.

The war in Columbia, which pits the rebels against the army and outlawed
right-wing paramilitary groups, has become increasingly brutal in recent years.

It has displaced nearly 2 million of the country's 40 million people in the
last decade and has raised fears the conflict could spill over into
neighboring countries.

All five nations bordering Colombia -- Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and
Venezuela -- sent delegates to the meeting.

European diplomats told Reuters they would bring up the issue of
humanitarian law and respect for human rights.

The FARC has been widely condemned by international human rights groups for
staging mass kidnappings and killing hundreds of civilians with homemade
gas cylinder bombs during attacks on police stations.

The FARC and the government are discussing a "humanitarian exchange" of
sick prisoners. The FARC is holding some 500 police and soldiers captive in
mountain and jungle hide-outs, some for as long as three years. They want
to exchange them for comrades serving sentences in state prisons.

On Thursday, mothers of policemen and soldiers held by the FARC chanted
"freedom for our sons" as diplomats arrived. They blocked peace
commissioner Gomez's car from leaving the airport.