The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will return to formal peace talks, the country's largest rebel force said last night after two days of meetings between its leader and President Andres Pastrana.
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"I believe that today we have revived the peace process in this country," Mr Pastrana said during a news conference at which he sat alongside the camouflage-clad veteran FARC leader Mr Manuel 'Sureshot' Marulanda Velez.
In a 13-point agreement, the 17,000-member leftist FARC - South America's largest and best-armed guerrilla force - promised to return to formal peace talks next Wednesday for the first time since breaking off negotiations last November.
Mr Pastrana and Mr Marulanda met in a demilitarized enclave in southern Colombia that the president granted the FARC in 1998 to start talks to end a 37-year-old war that has left 35,000 civilians dead in the last decade alone.
Reuters