SEEKING TO END LONG CIVIL WAR, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT APPEALS TO CUBA

HAVANA - Seeking an end to a long and brutal guerrilla war that has
killed tens of thousands, Colombian President Andres Pastrana on
Friday turned for help to the region's most famous guerrilla, Fidel
Castro.

Castro, who once sought to export socialist revolution throughout
Latin America, has stepped back from that role in recent decades,
saying armed struggle is no longer an effective route to power.

Still, Pastrana, who has made winning peace with Colombia's leftist
guerrillas the key aim of his new administration, hopes to use the
Cuban leader's influence and leftist credentials to further Colombia's
latest effort at a peace settlement.

"I think that for us it's very important that President Castro is
involved in our peace process," Pastrana told reporters Friday in
Havana. "He still has a lot of influence inside the insurgent groups
in our country and he's willing to play a role in this peace process
if we agree with the insurgent groups to the presence of Cuba or other
friendly countries in this process."

Castro has promised his help with a peace accord but told journalists
he did not want Cuba to take a leading role. In talks with Pastrana
late Thursday he counseled "patience, wisdom and discretion" as the
keys to achieving peace.

Cuban analysts had speculated that Castro might seek a high-profile
role as mediator in an effort to strengthen his international image.

Pastrana, who took office five months ago, agreed last week with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to work toward
creating a framework for peace talks by Feb. 7. FARC, with around
15,000 members, is the largest of several Marxist insurgent groups in
Colombia.

Additional talks are planned with the 5,000-member National Liberation
Army, or ELN, starting Feb. 13.

Pastrana said Friday he hopes to put together a group of mutually
acceptable friendly countries as guarantors of the peace process but
stopped short of saying that Castro might personally mediate a peace
deal.

"I think that President Castro is a guarantee for the peace process,"
Pastrana said. "The most important thing is that Cuba is willing to
play a pacificator role inside the process."

"We have been having long conversations, exchanging a lot of ideas and
a lot of points of view on this subject," Pastrana said of his talks
with Castro.

Another likely guarantor in the Colombian peace negotiations is
Venezuela, whose President-elect Hugo Chavez has promised his support
for peace in neighboring Colombia.

Chavez will travel to Havana this weekend for talks with Pastrana and
Castro.

Asked Friday if he foresees the involvement of the United States in
the peace process, Pastrana said he thinks the U.S. "should play a
role" but didn't make clear what that might be.

U.S. officials have suggested they would be willing to help in the
process and met recently in Costa Rica with Colombian officials and
guerrillas, Pastrana said. Some diplomats, however, fear a guarantor
group that included the United States and Cuba could create more
sparks than it douses.

Pastrana also said Friday that while initial talks of a peace deal
have focused on a settlement with FARC and the ELN, any lasting peace
also would need to include deals with Colombia's right-wing
paramilitary organizations.

Colombia's peace process, he said, might be modeled in part on that in
Guatemala, which ended a long guerrilla war a little over two years
ago.

Colombia has endured a decades-long civil war, which has claimed more
than 35,000 lives in the last 10 years alone in fighting among
guerrillas, paramilitaries and government troops.

Kidnappings, murders of political candidates and other killings are
commonplace, and in recent years guerrillas have extended their reach
into broad areas of the country, even carrying out attacks on the
outskirts of the capital, Bogota.

Just how committed the guerrilla groups are to their Marxist roots,
however, has come into question in recent years. Analysts believe the
groups have increasingly become simple criminal organizations living
off funds raised through kidnappings and contact with
narco-traffic.

Castro and Pastrana on Thursday signed a number of accords, including
a deal to control drug trafficking.