BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian authorities pledged
                  Monday to "silence the weapons" of ultra-right wing death squads that
                  have massacred as many as 130 people across the country in four days.

                  On Sunday alone, more than 20 people were shot or hacked to death with
                  machetes in southern Putumayo province, the heart of territory controlled by
                  Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.

                  "Paramilitary groups ... are an extremely grave factor within the armed
                  conflict. We cannot conceive peace without silencing their weapons and this
                  must be the exclusive responsibility of the state," government peace
                  commissioner Victor Ricardo said.

                  The pledge to rein in the country's estimated 5,000 paramilitary fighters,
                  grouped in a nationwide alliance known as the United Self-Defense Forces
                  of Colombia (AUC), was part of a 10-point agenda the government
                  submitted Monday for discussion with FARC.

                  The government and FARC officially launched peace talks last Thursday at
                  an open-air ceremony in the southeast jungle town of San Vicente del
                  Caguan. The first working session concluded Saturday, and in a joint
                  statement rebel and government delegates pledged their commitment to
                  lasting peace.

                  On Monday, President Andres Pastrana huddled with top military brass and
                  government ministers to discuss the latest wave of violence.

                  "We have moved in troops and police and are committed to pursuing these
                  criminals," Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda said shortly before the
                  meeting.

                  The paramilitaries have carried out at least 20 attacks since Thursday, most
                  concentrated in remote farming areas in the north.

                  Worshippers shot in front of church

                  One of the bloodiest incidents was reported Saturday in the riverfront village
                  of Playon de Orozco, 650 kilometers (400 miles) north of Bogota, when
                  right-wing gunmen dragged 27 worshippers out of a church and riddled them
                  with bullets in front of the parish priest.

                  FARC says peace talks will go  nowhere unless the government
                  dismantles the landowner-backed militias that have been slaughtering
                  suspected rebel sympathizers for more than a decade. Pastrana's government
                  has said it will hold talks with the paramilitary groups at a later date.
                                               

                  Two weeks ago, FARC rebels laid siege in the northwestern Nudo del
                  Paramillo mountains to the fortified headquarters of the top paramilitary
                  leader, Carlos Castano, killing as many as 30 people and forcing Castano
                  and hundreds of others to flee.

                  Landowners formed the paramilitary groups more than a decade ago,
                  allegedly to counter guerrilla kidnappings and extortion. Human rights groups
                  accuse the Colombian army of giving the groups tacit support.

                  The current talks mark the third time the government has attempted to make
                  peace with the rebels since the civil war began more than three decades ago.
                  The conflict has claimed more than 35,000 lives, mostly civilians, in the last
                  decade alone.