Nicaragua's leftist president, Daniel Ortega, said on Wednesday he was willing to accept a request from Colombia's biggest guerrilla force for talks to try to help Colombia end its four-decade-long civil war.
Ortega said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which some analysts see as being on the brink of defeat, had asked to speak with him about "war and peace."
"We are fully willing to contribute to the peace process and we tell our brothers in the FARC that we are willing to talk. We are willing to dialogue to help bring peace to Colombia," Ortega said in a televised speech.
The FARC, which finances its fight for a socialist state with cocaine money, is reeling from recent government strikes and the deaths of some of its top leaders.
Colombian troops duped rebels this month into freeing 15 hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American defense contractors.
Ortega said Colombia's government should not try to wipe out the FARC.
"Colombia won't get peace by trying to annihilate the FARC leadership," he said.
Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary and Cold War foe of the United States, temporarily broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia in March after the Colombian military raided a rebel camp inside Ecuador and killed the FARC's No. 2 commander.
Colombia protested comments by Ortega in June in which he called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "terrorist" for ordering the bombing of the rebel camp in Ecuador
The FARC has said it is still willing to negotiate a swap with the government of remaining hostages for guerrilla detainees, although negotiations with Uribe are bogged down over conditions for holding the exchange.
