DIPLOMATS TO MEET COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS IN INTERNATIONAL EFFORT TO SUPPORT PEACE

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Envoys from two dozen countries and the United
Nations headed into guerrilla territory Wednesday in a multinational effort
to prop up peace talks despite Washington's refusal to participate.

The U.S. prohibition on contacts with Colombia's largest leftist insurgency
showed the growing isolation of U.S. policy in the war-torn South American
nation.

Stark differences have surfaced, in particular with Europe, where a
U.S.-financed counter-narcotics offensive is seen as a militaristic venture
that will inflame the fighting and undermine negotiations to end Colombia's
37-year conflict.

Diplomats, including U.N. peace envoy Jan Egeland, were to fly to a
southern stronghold that President Andres Pastrana ceded to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, at the outset of the talks
two years ago. The envoys were to stay overnight, then meet Thursday with
rebel leaders in Los Pozos, a village in Colombia's humid southern plains.

The meeting follows a dramatic peace summit last month at which Mr.
Pastrana and FARC leader Manuel Marulanda agreed to a greater international
role in the peace process.

There are no plans yet for foreign mediators or large on-the-ground
observer teams. But Colombia is seen as inching toward a larger foreign
role modeled on successful peace efforts in Central America during the 1990s.

Austrian ambassador Marianne da Costa de Moraes, who was heading to
Thursday's meeting, questioned the U.S. attitude toward contacts with the
FARC -- despite the groups' ties to the cocaine trade and its use of
kidnappings to finance its war.

Ms. Da Costa said in an interview that talking with the rebels is better
than "not having any channels." She added: "Even with all their narco
money, the kidnappings and everything, you cannot deny that they still have
a political agenda."