Representatives of Colombia's largest rebel group have met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special advisor on Colombia in an attempt to salvage beleaguered peace talks.
Rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced today they wished to restart peace talks that broke down Wednesday.
"This is a defining moment for the future of Colombia, between the hopes for peace or the road toward war without negotiations," UN envoy Mr James LeMoyne said upon arriving in Colombia.
Mr LeMoyne, a US national, expressed particular concern over the fate of nearly 100,000 people who live in the Switzerland-sized FARC haven in southern Colombia that could be invaded by the Colombian military.
His main objective is to find a formula by which representatives of the government of President Andres Pastrana and the FARC can return to the negotiating table.
Mr Pastrana has given the guerrillas a deadline on Sunday to start negotiating or move out of their haven, which for three years has served as their main base of operations and a site for peace talks.
The bumpy government-rebel peace talks, which began in January 1999, broke down when FARC negotiators demanded an end to military fly-overs and checkpoints around the haven. Mr Pastrana declared those items not negotiable.
AFP