Colombian rebels say to hand Chavez three hostages

(Adds Sarkozy reaction)

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Colombian Marxist guerrillas have said they will turn over three hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez just weeks after Bogota ended the leftist leader's efforts to broker the release of rebel captives.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said it had ordered Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel and Consuelo Gonzalez released to Chavez or his contact, according to Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, which obtained the rebel statement.

The FARC, Latin America's oldest insurgency, holds scores of hostages in secret jungle camps for ransom and political leverage, with some captive for as long as a decade.

Hostage families welcomed news of the possible release, but it put pressure on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe after he sparked a spat by halting Chavez's mediation over hostages, including a French-Colombian politician and three Americans held for more than four years.

Chavez, a White House foe who presents his socialist vision as a counterweight to U.S. policies, confirmed the FARC statement. But he said he had yet to decide how to proceed and attacked Uribe for ending his negotiation efforts on Nov. 22.

"A few minutes ago, I received the FARC communique. I was ready for some hostage release. ... It seems like a great Christmas present," Chavez said during a visit to Uruguay.

Colombia's government said it was reserving judgment on the FARC statement.

"We do not think it prudent for the government to make any statements for now as on previous occasions the FARC has announced such releases without them happening," Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters.

Clara Rojas was campaigning with dual French-Colombian citizen and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt when they were captured in 2002 in southern Colombia.

Rojas conceived and gave birth to her son in captivity and the case of the boy raised in FARC jungle hide-outs shocked Colombians. Consuelo Gonzalez is a former lawmaker who was kidnapped in 2001.

"This is the moment I have waited for. ... This closes the circle," Rojas' mother Clara Gonzalez told local radio.

MESSAGES FROM PARIS

Initially formed as a peasant army fighting for socialism in the 1960s, the FARC today is branded a drug-smuggling, terrorist group by the United States and Europe.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is urging other Latin American governments to back his efforts to secure an agreement between Uribe and the guerrillas on swapping a group of key hostages for hundreds of rebels held in prisons.

"He hopes that it will mark the beginning of a movement leading to the release of Ingrid Betancourt and of all other hostages," Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

Chavez and leftist Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba had been invited by Uribe earlier this year to try to secure a hostage deal but Colombia ended the effort last month over concerns the Venezuelan had broken protocol and favored the FARC.

The announcement triggered a quarrel between the two countries and Chavez called back his ambassador from Caracas in protest. He has threatened trade ties and says he wants nothing to do with the Uribe government.

Uribe, popular for his success in reducing violence and driving the FARC back into the jungles, recently offered a 30-day safe haven under international observation for talks to exchange 47 high-profile captives for jailed rebels.

But the FARC insisted in their communique that he remove troops for a demilitarized zone about the size of New York City to facilitate talks for 45 days.

Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping, has repeatedly rejected that demand.

Foreign pressure has mounted for an accord since the government captured rebel videos of some hostages in November.

The videos revealed the three Americans and showed Betancourt looking gaunt in a secret jungle camp. The tapes and letters to families were the first proof Betancourt was alive since she appeared in another video 2003. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana, Conrado Hornos in Montevideo, Francois Murphy in Paris, editing by Philip Barbara and Todd Eastham)