Colombia revives tensions with comments: Chavez

By Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Colombian comments defending its bombing raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador this month have revived tensions in the Andean region, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Monday.

"It has cost us plenty to get back on the path of good relations. We don't want a new escalation of tensions between us," Chavez said during the inauguration of a hospital near the border with Colombia.

"But these declarations immediately cause tension ... with Venezuela, with Ecuador, with neighboring countries," he said.

Colombia on Sunday said its March 1 raid on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, camp inside Ecuadorean territory was justified because the rebels had used it to launch terrorist attacks.

Chavez berated Colombia's defense minister, whom he called a "spokesman for war," and said Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe should tell his cabinet not to make inflammatory comments.

"For the love of god, President Uribe, don't allow this. The government of Colombia is in your hands, send a message to the spokesmen of war," he told a cheering crowd.

The March 1 raid briefly raised fears of war in the region when Ecuador and Venezuela responded by ordering troops to their borders with Colombia and cutting off diplomatic ties.

Tempers cooled with handshakes at a regional summit a few days later, but Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is still fuming and has not yet renewed diplomatic relations with his neighbor.