Freed FARC rebel in Venezuela for hostage talks

A Colombian guerrilla freed to broker a deal over hostages has travelled to Venezuela to help set up talks with President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking to end a deadlock over negotiations, the government has said.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in June released from prison Rodrigo Granda, known as the "foreign minister" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a gesture to advance talks.

The recent involvement of Chavez raised hopes the leftist may secure a deal to free hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by the FARC for more than four years in secret jungle camps.

"Rodrigo Granda was authorized ... to seek peace efforts and to move between Havana and Caracas, and he has travelled to Venezuela to serve as a bridge of communication," Colombia's peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, told local radio.

Granda travelled to Cuba after his release in Colombia.

The announcement came after a left-wing Colombian senator, who is acting as a facilitator in talks, also said efforts to broker initial negotiations between Chavez and the FARC leadership had advanced, but without giving details.

Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, has said he plans to meet with a representative of the Marxist FARC leadership in Venezuela in an effort to end a stalemate over hostages. Granda is acting as a mediator for possible talks.

Negotiations are stalled over FARC demands Uribe pull troops back from an area the size of New York City and that two guerrilla commanders in US prisons are freed and included in the deal to exchange key hostages for jailed FARC fighters.

Uribe, popular for his hardline stance, has rejected a demilitarized zone under FARC conditions saying that would allow the guerrillas to regroup in an area strategic for arms and cocaine trafficking from the south of the country.

Uribe has employed billions of dollars in US aid to send troops to drive the FARC back into the jungles, but Latin America's longest-running insurgency is still fighting in remote areas, often financed by funds from the cocaine trade.