COLOMBIA'S HOPES HINGE ON JUNGLE SUMMIT

Seeking to salvage faltering peace negotiations, President Andres Pastrana
ventured into a guerrilla-held patch of jungle on Thursday to sit with
Colombia's most powerful rebel leader and look for a way to spare their
battered country from a broader war.

Under a downpour in the steamy southern jungle, Mr Pastrana huddled
throughout the day with Manuel Marulanda, who has spent more than half his
70 years fighting the government as head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia. The two embraced gingerly, surrounded by rebels in camouflage
uniforms in the Switzerland-size region that Mr Pastrana cleared of security
forces two years ago to foster peace talks. They then moved into a thatched
pavilion prepared for their discussions.

"Everyone wants peace," Mr Marulanda said in a passing remark to a
television reporter. "Hope is the last thing one loses."

The talks, held in the village of Los Pozos, about 330 kilometres south of
Bogota, the capital, gave Mr Pastrana and Mr Marulanda what could be their
last opportunity to revive the stalled peace process, Colombian officials
said. Mr Pastrama and Mr Marulanda emerged late in the afternoon and said
the talks had been cordial and useful, but required another day to conclude.

"We have decided to meet and continue this conversation tomorrow," said Mr
Pastrana, who planned to spend the night in a vacant military base near the
meeting site. "The meeting was very productive and we will continue
working."

Standing at Mr Pastrana's side, Mr Marulanda said, "I feel very satisfied
about this meeting and back the words of the President."

The meeting came at a perilous moment for Mr Pastrana's peace campaign,
which has long been viewed with scepticism in Washington. US officials have
promoted a harder line against the FARC, which they say has taken on a major
role in drug smuggling. A key goal of the $US1.3 billion ($A2.43 billion) US
anti-drug aid package for Colombia, the bulk of which is military hardware
and training for anti-drug battalions, is to eliminate the cocaine
production that is the FARC's chief source of revenue.

Mr Marulanda, for his part, is demanding that Mr Pastrana scale back the
anti-drug offensive and crack down on a right-wing paramilitary group that
has been massacring suspected rebel sympathisers.