US, COLOMBIAN REBELS SECRETLY MEET

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) U.S. diplomats have met secretly with a
Colombian guerrilla faction that Washington considers a terrorist
organization, U.S. and Colombian officials confirmed Sunday.

State Department officials met in Costa Rica with members of the
15,000- strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and a
government representative, said Colombian presidential peace envoy
Victor G. Ricardo. He declined to give details but said that
"everything (discussed) was related to the peace process."

A U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity also confirmed the meeting.

Officials only acknowledged the meeting after it was revealed Sunday
in a Colombian newspaper.

The powerful rebel insurgency plans to enter negotiations with the
Colombian government Thursday, and American officials have taken a
keen interest in the peace talks. They see them as an opportunity to
curb cocaine production, their top priority in Colombia.

The U.S. government lists the leftist FARC which has kidnapped and
killed U.S. citizens as well as Colombians as a terrorist
organization.

The FARC has indicated it would help attack drug trafficking as part
of a peace settlement. The rebels now encourage the drug trade,
protecting peasants who grow illegal drug crops and taking payoffs
for guarding drug traffickers' laboratories and airstrips.

The U.S. official would not say when the meeting occurred, and denied
local media reports that Peter Romero, the State Department's top
envoy for Latin America, was in attendance. "It was at a lower level,"
said the official.

El Tiempo newspaper reported Sunday that Romero had met in Costa Rica
around Dec. 25 with top FARC commander Raul Reyes.