MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Following bombing Colombia cancels prisoner exchange

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe withdrew on Friday his offer to negotiate a humanitarian prisoner exchange with Marxist oriented rebels after blaming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for a car bomb that wounded 23 people

In a speech at the military university in Bogotá where the blast took place, Uribe said intercepted phone calls established that Thursday's attack was planned by a top leader of FARC, a group that has been fighting the government for more than four decades.

"Compatriots, for the dignity of the motherland and future generations, we must confront the terrorists so as to not be forever enslaved to them," Uribe said.

General Freddy Padilla, head of Colombia's armed forces, told Caracol Radio Friday that investigators had the recordings and they would not be released to the public.

A series of conciliatory remarks by Uribe in recent weeks had fed speculation the government was trying to arrange a swap of hundreds of jailed rebels for some 60 political prisoners held by the FARC, including three American defence contractors.

But Uribe on Friday quashed hopes for an eventual deal, ordering peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and other envoys to immediately cease contact with the guerrillas, whom he called "terrorists" and "scoundrels."

He also asked three European peace promoters, France, Spain and Switzerland to provide military instead of diplomatic assistance to guarantee the release of the hostages, some of whom have been captive for more than a decade.

"The only option left is a military rescue," Uribe said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, in a statement issued late Friday, reiterated his government's opposition "to any effort to rescue the hostages by force."

In the last military operation to rescue hostages, in May 2003, rebels killed 10 hostages, including a former defence minister and provincial governor, as an army rescue squad approached a FARC camp deep in the jungle.

Uribe's hardened stance drew swift condemnation from hostage family members.

"The president's speech condemns to death the kidnapped hostages," said a weeping Yolanda Pulecio, whose daughter Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning in the jungle for Colombia's presidency.

Thursday's blast at Nueva Granada military university occurred while Commander of the Army General Mario Montoya and foreign dignitaries were attending an event at the academy. One of his bodyguards was among the injured.