COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT VISITS REBEL CHIEF

'Very Productive' Peace Talks Held

LOS POZOS, Colombia -- Staking his own safety on resuscitating Colombia's
shaky peace process, President Andres Pastrana traveled to rebel territory
yesterday, where he was embraced by guerrilla chief Manuel Marulanda and
held "very productive" talks.

As dusk approached in Los Pozos, a village in the heart of guerrilla
territory, the leaders of the opposing sides ended their almost eight hours
of talks and called a temporary halt for the night. Pastrana flew in a
helicopter to spend the night at an abandoned army base located inside this
safe haven he granted the rebels two years ago.

But the early positive signals belied the challenges Pastrana faces in his
quest to end Colombia's 37-year war. In their third face-to-face encounter,
Pastrana is trying to get Marulanda's Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, to return to formal peace talks they abandoned in November.

Marulanda, for his part, is demanding that Pastrana crack down on a
right-wing paramilitary group that has been massacring suspected rebel
sympathizers, and scale back an anti-drug offensive backed by $1.3 billion
in U.S. military aid. A possible prisoner exchange also was on the table.

"We have decided to meet and continue this conversation . . . at nine in
the morning," Pastrana said with Marulanda at his side. "The meeting was
very productive and we will continue working."

Marulanda, 70, also put a positive spin on yesterday's talks.

"I feel very satisfied about this meeting and back the words of the
president," Marulanda said.

A failure to make headway could plunge this South American country into
deeper turmoil. Some 3,000 people are killed annually in fighting among
guerrillas, the military and the paramilitary group, which is competing for
drug profits with the FARC.

Pastrana, 45, had arrived in the Switzerland-sized safe haven yesterday
morning on his plane from the capital, Bogota. He flew to San Vicente del
Caguan, the biggest town in the so-called demilitarized zone in southern
Colombia's Caqueta province, and then traveled by helicopter to the nearby
village of Los Pozos.

There, a "guerrillera," or female rebel, surprised Pastrana by rushing up
behind him and putting a rain poncho around his shoulders.