MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pte. Chávez and his counterpart Uribe to meet

President Hugo Chávez will meet with his Colombian counterpart this month to discuss the Venezuelan leader's offer to help mediate a humanitarian exchange with Colombia's largest rebel group.

Colombian Sen. Piedad Córdoba, who has received permission from Uribe to facilitate a possible prisoner exchange with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, announced the meeting yesterday at a press conference in Caracas. ''We are going to dedicate ourselves to achieve freedom for the hostages,'' Cordoba said. It was not immediately clear exactly when or where the meeting would take place. The FARC holds hundreds of hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US defence contractors, whom they say they will free in exchange for the release of imprisoned guerrillas and a temporary demilitarized zone. Córdoba, who met with Chávez yesterday, also told reporters the Venezuelan leader would meet on Monday with the families of hostages held by the FARC. She did not say who he would meet or where. The state-run Bolivarian News Agency quoted Chávez as saying that he would be involved in negotiations only if Uribe's government and rebel leaders were open to the idea. ''If the Colombian government sees holding a meeting between the mediator and those from the government and the FARC in Venezuelan territory, wherever, as convenient, if the FARC thinks it is convenient, we are willing to cooperate,'' he said. ''I've put myself at all of Colombia's service.'' In recent weeks Chávez has repeatedly floated the idea of meeting with Colombian rebel leaders to discuss ways to end the neighbouring country's decades-long armed conflict involving government troops, leftist insurgents and paramilitary groups. There are deep ideological differences between Chávez and Colombia's US-allied Uribe. Both leaders, however, have worked to maintain cooperative relations between their countries, which are bound by trade and concerns about security along a border frequented by rebels, paramilitary fighters and drug traffickers. The FARC has declared its support for Chávez. The Venezuelan leader, however, has never endorsed the rebels while maintaining a neutral stance regarding Colombia's conflict