SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia (AP) -- Less than two
                  weeks after inaugurating peace talks with President Andres Pastrana's
                  government, Colombia's most powerful rebel group said Tuesday it
                  is suspending the negotiations.

                  In a communique, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
                  said it will not continue with the talks unless the government takes steps to
                  dismantle right-wing paramilitary death squads.

                  Pastrana's peace commissioner, Victor G. Ricardo, said the government is
                  committed to combating the paramilitary groups and that the issue is
                  independent of its talks with the FARC.

                  "To allow the national government (to achieve) the expected results we
                  consider it appropriate to freeze the initiated dialogues, leaving the proposals
                  on the table until satisfactory results against paramilitarism are seen," the
                  FARC's seven-man junta said in the statement.

                  Immediately after the talks were initiated in this southern town on January 7,
                  paramilitary gunmen unleashed a murderous campaign against alleged rebel
                  sympathizers in four states, claiming more than 130 lives in 72 hours.

                  Rebel leader still plans to attend meeting

                  Rebel negotiator and junta member Raul Reyes, who read the five-point
                  communique to reporters, said rebel commander Manuel Marulanda will
                  nevertheless attend a meeting set for Wednesday to discuss FARC's
                  proposal to swap 452 jailed rebels for more than 350 captive soldiers and
                  police.

                  However, Ricardo, who is to represent the government at that meeting, told
                  reporters outside the presidential palace in Bogota that he is proposing it be
                  delayed until next Tuesday.

                  Both the government and rebel officials said a second round of separate
                  talks, attended by the government's four-member negotiating team and three
                  FARC representatives, will be held on Sunday and Monday as scheduled.

                  But what might follow remained unstated.

                  As a rebel condition for the negotiations -- aimed at ending a 34-year-old
                  conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives -- the government has
                  pulled its troops from a swath of southern Colombia the size of Switzerland.

                  Critics have accused FARC of taking advantage of the government
                  withdrawal to strengthen its political and military positions.

                  The communique said FARC's action was a response to the killing by
                  paramilitary fighters of 200 "innocent civilians" over four days.

                  The paramilitary groups, backed by wealthy landowners, arose nearly two
                  decades ago as a response to rebel kidnapping and extortion.

                  The military has been accused by governments abroad and human rights
                  groups of tacitly and sometimes actively supporting the right-wing private
                  militias.

                      Copyright 1998   The Associated Press.