Colombia's government on Thursday rejected calls by the leftist FARC guerrilla group to demilitarize rural areas in Colombia, saying that and other issues were beyond the scope of ongoing peace talks. "The government is not going to start negotiating on new topics," peace talks representative Humberto De la Calle told reporters, as the two sides prepared to take an 11-day break. "I'm referring, for example, to the issue raised by the FARC on 'demilitarizing the rural areas.' This issue is not part of the discussions," said De la Calle as he prepared to return to Bogota.

Colombia's leftist FARC rebels said Wednesday that an end to Latin America's longest-running armed conflict would only come about as a result of policies providing for social "justice." The Colombian government has been holding talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cuba since November in a bid to end a conflict that began as a peasant revolt against inequality in the 1960s.

Bogota, Mar 18 (EFE).- Colombia's FARC rebels claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 16 members of the security forces in the strife-torn southwestern province of Cauca, but the government said the guerrillas were lying. In a March 15 communique posted on the Internet late Sunday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, reported that the soldiers were killed in a minefield.

Bogota, Mar 12 (EFE).- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the Andean nation's largest guerrilla group, the FARC, now has fewer than 8,000 fighters. "The number of people under arms in the FARC is 7,800," the president told reporters after a Cabinet meeting, citing figures from military intelligence. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has battled a succession of Colombian governments since the mid-1960s. As for the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Santos said it has fewer than 1,500 members, though it once had some 4,000 combatants.