BONN -- A leader of a Colombian rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN), on Tuesday proposed a ceasefire in exchange for an inquiry into paramilitary death squads.

Pablo Beltran, in a brief interview in the German weekly Focus, said the ELN would make the offer at a meeting of members of the National Peace Council in Mainz, Germany, to be held under the auspices of the Catholic Church starting Sunday.

The Marxist ELN and the larger and stronger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have both made recent overtures to the Colombian government to end a 30-year guerrilla war that claimed more than 6,000 lives in 1997 alone.

Both refused to negotiate with outgoing President Ernesto Samper's government, which they see as corrupt, but have embraced President-elect Andres Pastrana's call for peace talks.