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	Colombia Eyes meeting between U.N. and FARC rebels.

By Reuters, 1 September 2003.

The landmark meeting -- should it be confirmed -- would mark the first dialogue with the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since its peace talks with the government collapsed in February 2002.

It would also answer a July call by the rebels for a meeting with a U.N. representative to explain "opinions and proposals for solutions to avoid unnecessary deaths of more compatriots." The conflict claims thousands of lives a year.

The Colombian government's chief peace negotiator, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said there would definitely be a meeting, noting that the United Nations had been working on the matter for the past week.

"Yes. This part is clear," he said in an interview with local radio.

The official was reluctant to offer any details, including whether the meeting would take place in Brazil. He asked for patience ahead of a formal announcement.

"There hasn't been anything official from the Brazilian government, nor from us, nor the United Nations. Instead, this has been handed informally, as a hypothesis," said Restrepo.

"Of course there have been consultations, but informal ones," he told Colombian radio.

Brazil is one of a small group of nations that has resisted Colombian calls to brand the FARC a "terrorist" organization, making it an ideal spot for a meeting.

Latin America's oldest and largest guerrilla group has found itself increasingly isolated since the end of peace talks, called off when the rebels hijacked a commercial airplane and kidnapped a senator.

Hard-line Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whom the FARC has called a fascist, promises to defeat the rebels on the battlefield if they do not call a cease-fire and negotiate. FARC rebels killed Uribe's father in the early 1980s during a botched kidnapping attempt.

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