By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
 Associated Press Writer

 LOS POZOS, Colombia (AP) — Four presidential candidates traveled into guerrilla territory to threaten, cajole and beg government and rebel
 negotiators to end the country's 38-year-civil war.

 Rebel leaders responded Thursday with their usual demands that the government address poverty, unemployment and illegal right-wing
 paramilitaries, and the United States withdraw its military personnel.

 A top rebel commander insisted that ending the talks — as the leading presidential candidate has threatened to do — would lead to more bloodshed.
 

 ``Don't dream in Colombia about the guerrillas defeated on the battlefield,'' Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commander Andres Paris
 warned during the five-hour, nationally televised forum. ``That will never happen. Never.''

 Presidential candidate Horacio Serpa responded: ``You will not take over the country with guns.''

 The civil war — which claims up to 3,500 lives a year — has become the principal issue in the campaign for the May presidential elections. The war
 pits the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and a smaller rebel group against an outlawed paramilitary group and the military.

 Many Colombians are fed up with the 3-year-old peace talks because they have yielded nothing except more violence.

 In a Gallup poll released Thursday, 53 percent supported Alvaro Uribe, a hard-line candidate who has vowed to exact concessions from the rebels
 or end the process.

 Serpa was second with 24 percent. He rejected all-out war as an option.

 The poll, published in Medellin's El Colombiano newspaper, had a 2 percent margin of error.

 Uribe, who did not attend the forum, said Thursday he would send troops into a vast rebel safe haven the day after taking office if rebels don't
 agree to an immediate cease-fire, as one government negotiator suggested Thursday.

 President Andres Pastrana granted the Switzerland-sized region in southern Colombia to the FARC three years ago to lure them to the negotiating
 table.

 The forum was held under a tin-roofed shelter in this mountainous jungle region dotted with cattle ranches and small farms.

 Five rebel leaders attended in full battle gear, carrying automatic rifles and wearing camouflage uniforms. Among other things, they demanded an
 end to the extradition of Colombians to face criminal charges abroad.

 All four candidates agreed with rebel stances concerning poverty, unemployment and the paramilitaries. Each promised, if elected, to tackle the
 country's social inequality.

 Candidate Ingrid Betancur urged the government to meet rebel demands to subsidize the unemployed, about 16 percent of the work force.

 Then she turned to the guerrillas and asked, ``What were you thinking when you decided to join the guerrillas? Did you think the guerrillas would
 be involved in cocaine?''

 The guerrillas tax drug profits to finance their fight.

 The $1.3 billion aid package from the United States includes money for equipment to fight drug trafficking. A key rebel demand in the talks is the
 withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel, which the guerrillas consider thinly veiled intervention in the civil war.

 Paris showed off an M-16 rifle and rocket launcher that he said was provided to the Colombian military in that aid package. He didn't say how the
 rebels obtained the weapon.

 The prospect of Uribe in the presidency convinced some here that the peace process is at a crucial point and there is little time left to make
 progress.

 ``We've spent three years talking about peace, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, peace, peace, peace,'' Serpa said.

 ``And every day, in the morning, afternoon and evening, we have also had more kidnappings, more attacks, more violations.''