SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia (CNN) -- Rebel leader
                  Manuel Marulanda snubbed President Andres Pastrana Thursday
                  by failing to meet him for peace talks aimed at ending a conflict that
                  has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years alone.

                  Marulanda, veteran leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
                  -- the Western hemisphere's oldest and most powerful insurgency group --
                  had been widely expected to attend the start of the talks in this town, in what
                  would have been his first public appearance ever.

                  However, there had been some reports ahead of the peace talks that the
                  rebel leader might not show up, for fear of an assassination.

                  Colombians' hopes are high that the talks can end a 34-year-old conflict that
                  claims thousands of lives every year.

                  U.S. officials and FARC rebels explored the alternative crop issue in secret
                  talks last month, which were later revealed by Colombian media and
                  confirmed by Washington.

                  Over the last two years, the rebels have dealt the army and police a
                  string of defeats and FARC is now believed to be in control of about 40
                  percent of the countryside.

                  Both the government and FARC have yet to set an agenda for the
                  talks.

                  So far, Marulanda's conditions for peace include the dismantling of
                  paramilitary groups and the exchange of over 250 jailed rebels for about
                  350 police and soldiers captured since 1996.

                  Rebels want redistribution of wealth

                  In the long term, FARC seeks a redistribution of rural wealth -- in a country
                  that has never seen agrarian reform and where the top 5 percent earn 30
                  times more than the bottom 5 percent.

                  The rebels, some of whom protect the drug trade, have refused to agree
                  to a cease-fire or any other concessions for the talks.

                   Marulanda has however indicated that he may be willing to help curb
                   drug trafficking and promote alternative crop development as part
                   of a peace settlement.

                  The United States has slowly warmed to the idea. Washington has more
                  than 200 advisers and personnel in the country and is expected to pour
                  $290 million into Colombia, ostensibly to fight the heroin and cocaine trade.

                  The Pastrana government accuses the FARC of protecting drug traffickers.
                  In an attempt to sway the rebels toward peace, the president has sketched
                  out a $3.5 billion Marshall Plan-style development fund for conflict-torn
                  regions.

                  As a precondition for the latest peace talks, the rebels demanded that
                  Pastrana remove all troops from San Vicente and a surrounding area the size
                  of Switzerland -- a condition finally satisfied in mid-December.

                  Pastrana was in turn permitted a 60-man police bodyguard contingent.

                  They arrived Wednesday under the close scrutiny of FARC security men,
                  pistols tucked under their shirts, who greeted their erstwhile foes with polite
                  handshakes.

                  Several thousand FARC fighters were camped on San Vicente's perimeter,
                  restricting entry at roadblocks and the town airstrip.

                  But the easy atmosphere in San Vicente, marked by FARC rebels shaking
                  hands and talking to townspeople and journalists covering the peace talks,
                  belied the importance of the negotiations.

                  "Mistrust remains huge and so are the stakes," said Reto Meister, who heads
                  the Latin America department of the International Committee of the Red
                  Cross.

                  One of the invited guests in the town, Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia
                  Marquez, told reporters that Colombians should be patient because,
                  whatever the outcome of this initiative, peace remains "a long way off."

                  Previous attempts to end the long-standing conflict failed in 1982-84 and
                  then again in 1991-92.

                       The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.