COLOMBIA REBEL CHIEF BLASTS U.S.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's top rebel chieftain accused the United
States on Monday of meddling with his country's internal affairs by sending
"hundreds of military advisers and mercenaries."

Manuel Marulanda, head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, also warned that peace talks with the government will collapse if
President Andres Pastrana forces the FARC to give up a Switzerland-sized
safe haven he ceded to the rebels in southern Colombia.

Marulanda, in a letter posted on the FARC's Internet site, said the peace
talks "will be over and not even the next president will have an open door"
should Pastrana send his troops into the 16,200-square-mile zone he granted
the rebels in an effort to boost the peace process.

The United States is pumping $1.3 billion in mostly military
counternarcotics aid to Colombia. But the rebels, who make huge profits in
protection payments from cocaine producers in Colombia, see the U.S.
assistance as a counterinsurgency campaign.

Up to 800 U.S. military personnel and civilians contracted by the State
Department are allowed in Colombia at one time under restrictions imposed
by Congress. Green Berets have been training Colombian anti-drug troops and
U.S. contractors piloting planes that fumigate drug crops.

Negotiations with the FARC inside the so-called demilitarized zone have
yielded little. Meanwhile, Colombia's military and U.S. officials have
accused the guerrillas of using the area for military preparations, to
stash hostages and to further enrich themselves in the cocaine trade.

The Colombian army also said Monday that more suspected members of the
Irish Republican Army visited the zone than previously believed. Three
suspected IRA members were arrested last month after allegedly conducting
explosives training for the FARC inside the zone.

But two other suspected IRA members -- identified as John Francis Johnson
and James Edward Walker -- traveled into the zone in April and left
Colombia before they could be detained, an army spokesman said.

Pastrana must decide whether to renew safe-haven status for the rebel
territory, which is set to expire Oct. 6. He has indicated he probably will
do so.

Leading candidates in next May's presidential elections are calling for
controls on the safe haven if not its outright cancellation should peace
talks continue to founder.

Front-runner Horacio Serpa is planning a protest caravan from Bogota to the
area later this month. Last week, the rebels warned that the FARC cannot
"be held responsible for his security" during the march.

Colombia's 37-year conflict kills some 3,000 people annually.