Colombia demands swift release of FARC hostages

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Thursday military intelligence had pinpointed the location of four hostages soon to be freed by FARC guerrillas and demanded rebels release them quickly because of one captive's health.

The FARC said earlier this month they planned to hand over three hostages to leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has led mediation efforts but angered Bogota and Washington by showing political support for the Marxist rebels.

Colombia's announcement came after President Alvaro Uribe met with the French foreign minister for talks on hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate held for six years by the FARC.

"We have done everything we can to facilitate these unilateral and unconditional releases and we urge that the release be speeded up," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said in a statement.

The FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- is holding dozens of hostages it wants to swap for rebels in jails. Key captives include Betancourt and three American contractors snatched five years ago on a counter-drug mission.

So far attempts to start talks on a broad hostage swap have failed, but the FARC this year released two hostages and fueled hopes for an agreement with the guerrillas.

Santos said he had intelligence on the whereabouts of former lawmakers Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltran and Luis Eladio Perez, and a fourth hostage, Jorge Gechem, whose family says is about to be freed due to his poor condition.

Started as a peasant army fighting for socialism in the 1960s, the FARC has been weakened by Uribe's U.S.-backed security drive and violence from the conflict has waned.