Chavez urges Colombian rebels to free all hostages

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged the new leader of Colombia's FARC rebels on Sunday to release all prisoners held in jungle camps, in an effort to galvanize international efforts to free high-profile hostages.

Chavez, who Colombia accuses of supporting Latin America's oldest insurgency, mediated the first major hostage releases in years in January and February but there has been no further progress toward freeing more prisoners for months.

"The time has come for the FARC to release everyone ... It would be a grand humanitarian gesture -- and unconditional. That's what I propose to the new leader," Chavez said.

Western powers such as France have pushed for regional diplomacy to free dozens of hostages, who at times are chained at the neck and include a French-Colombian politician and U.S. defense contractors.

Chavez appeared to be taking advantage of a historic change of leadership in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The rebels acknowledged last month their longtime leader had died and been succeeded by Alfonso Cano, who political analysts say is more likely to negotiate over releases.

"This is my message for you, Cano: 'Come on, let all these people go.' There are old folk, women, sick people, soldiers who have been prisoners in the mountain for ten years," Chavez said on his weekly TV show.

The FARC is at its weakest point in years in its decades-old war due to senior rebels' deaths, high-profile defections and battlefield losses.

The Marxist group holds hundreds of captured security forces in secret camps as well as dozens of hostages who it hopes to swap for its own senior imprisoned rebels.

(Reporting by Patricia Rondon; Writing by Saul Hudson; editing by David Wiessler)