COLOMBIA:Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has agreed to let emissaries of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez travel to the Colombian jungle to take custody of three kidnap victims set for release by their left-wing rebel captors.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) announced last week that they would release hostages to Mr Chavez if the logistics could be worked out.
Hostages set for release include former presidential campaign manager Clara Rojas and her young son, Emmanuel, who was born in captivity. Rojas was captured in 2002 along with her boss, presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who remains a captive.
Colombian legislator Consuelo Gonzalez is also set for release.
The Farc's offer to release the prisoners, who are among 45 political hostages in rebel custody, came weeks after Mr Uribe abruptly ended mediation efforts by Mr Chavez to secure the release of prisoners. Mr Uribe claimed Mr Chavez had broken protocol by talking to a Colombian military leader.
The two leaders then traded insults, with Mr Chavez charging that Mr Uribe was doing the bidding of the United States and squandering the possibility of a breakthrough deal. Mr Uribe countered that Mr Chavez was trying to give Farc "terrorists" political legitimacy.
The rancorous collapse of the talks brought a renewed focus to the ordeals of prisoners, some held for a decade. Pais Libre, an advocacy group representing kidnap victims' families, said it hoped the hostage release would serve as "preamble" to freedom for the others.
Mr Uribe has offered to release hundreds of suspected Farc rebels from government jails in exchange for the hostages, but the two sides have been unable to agree to terms. Mr Uribe has refused the rebel demand that they be given the indefinite use of two counties in central Colombia.
At a news conference on Wednesday at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Mr Chavez unveiled his plan to send a "caravan" of Venezuelan aircraft and helicopters to Villavicencio, located about 97km (60 miles) east of Bogota.
From there, helicopters would depart for an unspecified jungle location or locations to pick up the hostages. The precise locations would not be known until they were in the air. The hostages would then be taken to Venezuela and reunited with their families.
The only condition Mr Uribe set for the exchange was that all foreign aircraft entering Colombia have markings of the International Red Cross.
Representatives from Cuba, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador would go along as observers.
At his news conference, Mr Chavez seemed to extend an olive branch to Mr Uribe, saying he was willing to resume mediation efforts "despite all that has occurred and all the broken plates between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela".
Mr Chavez also said the details of the "formula" for the release had been agreed to by Farc leadership.
In a statement accepting Mr Chavez's proposal, Colombian foreign minister Fernando Araujo said "the government of Colombia thanks the Bolivarean Republic of Venezuela, in particular President Hugo Chavez" for taking on the "humanitarian mission".
The Farc gave no indication if they would release Ms Betancourt or three US defence contractors, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell or Marc Gonsalves, who were captured in February 2003.