COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT, REBELS TO BEGIN PEACE TALKS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- After a series of false starts that left many Colombians
skeptical about the peace process, the government and the nation's largest
Marxist guerrilla group announced Saturday that they will open formal talks
next week.

"Peace negotiations will start on Oct. 24," said Raul Reyes, a spokesman for
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The two sides are scheduled to meet in Uribe, located in a southern jungle
zone the size of Switzerland that was demilitarized by the government last
year as a good-faith gesture and is now under defacto FARC control.

Talks to end Colombia's 35-year war were supposed to begin in January. But
the process stalled when the FARC accused the Colombian army of supporting a
January offensive by illegal paramilitary groups, which target the
guerrillas and their supporters.

Meanwhile, the FARC has launched attacks from the demilitarized zone, or
DMZ, and has been accused of kidnapping and executing civilians there. That
prompted the government to call for an international verification commission
to monitor the FARC's behavior in the DMZ.

The rebels refused, and talks were postponed until the government backed
down. On Saturday, peace commissioner Victor G. Ricardo said that delays and
disputes are to be expected.

"Forty or more years of conflict cannot be halted overnight," said Ricardo,
after meeting with Reyes in La Tunia in the DMZ. "We are building
confidence. We have clarified points of view, and we are going to begin the
negotiating phase."

Many analysts believe that the FARC, which has more than 15,000 fighters and
earns millions from kidnappings and extortion and by protecting drug
dealers, has little interest in signing a peace treaty any time soon.

Indeed, both sides are preparing for a prolonged war.