PASTRANA, REBEL CHIEF ANNOUNCE TALKS

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Colombia will begin substantive peace talks later
this week with Latin America's most powerful guerrilla group, President
Andres Pastrana and the rebel leader announced Sunday after a surprise meeting.

The peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
will begin Thursday, according to a joint statement read to reporters by
Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto.

Without explicitly saying so, Pastrana was, in effect, announcing that he
would extend a controversial withdrawal of all government forces from a
massive southern region where Pastrana met with the FARC's
legendary leader, Manuel Marulanda.

The troop withdrawal was set to expire later this week, and Pastrana had
warned he would only extend the measure if he felt that progress was being
made in preliminary discussions to define an agenda for the talks.

In the statement Sunday, both sides said they had reviewed efforts thus far
and found "concrete and significant advances."

Negotiations between the government and the 15,000-member rebel group were
formally initiated in southern Colombia in January. The rebels control a
region the size of Switzerland that has been cleared of all government
troops as a concession to the FARC.

Last week, government and rebel negotiators meeting near San Vicente del
Caguan, the largest of five towns in the demilitarized zone, announced they
were near agreement on a far-reaching agenda for talks to end Colombia's 35-
year conflict.

The two sides also announced they would form an international commission to
help verify agreements and appealed to Colombian society and the
international community to have patience during a potentially lengthy peace
process.

Pastrana's peace efforts have put him at odds with the U.S. Congress, who
say it has hampered drug crop eradication efforts and given the FARC the
opportunity to increase its profits from the local cocaine trade.

FARC commanders deny "trafficking" in cocaine, but acknowledge taxing
production and cultivation.

Senior U.S. diplomats have said Pastrana was in danger of losing credibility
if he were to continue to pull government troops out of rebel-held areas
without getting the rebels to agree to formal peace talks.

The rendezvous Sunday was the second time Pastrana has surprised the nation
since his election by meeting with the reclusive rebel chief.

Television footage released by the presidency showed the two men chatting as
they strolled side-by-side along a dirt road.