BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Leftist rebels on Saturday released an
                  American hostage, one of 41 passengers and crew seized in the mid-April
                  hijacking of a domestic flight, officials said.

                  Daniel Hoffman was released by guerrillas of the National Liberation Army,
                  or ELN, and flown by helicopter to a clinic in Bucaramanga, 185 miles
                  northeast of the capital Bogota, said Mauricio Geremia, a Red Cross
                  spokesman. Geremia did not say why Hoffman had been released, or
                  describe his physical condition.

                  Forty-one people were kidnapped when five pistol-wielding ELN guerrillas
                  hijacked the Avianca airliner and forced it to land at a remote jungle airstrip
                  six months ago.

                  The rebel group still holds 15 passengers and crew-members -- including a
                  Colombian congressman -- and has demanded a ransom. One other hostage
                  died of a heart attack while still captive.

                  The ELN also holds more than 60 other civilian captives, seized in a raids on
                  a Catholic church and a sports-fishing excursion. The 5,000-strong group
                  has called on President Andres Pastrana to withdraw troops and police from
                  a swath of territory in northeastern Colombia to allow peace talks.

                  Although official contacts with the ELN were broken when the group
                  admitted it was charging ransoms, President Pastrana recently said that
                  negotiations could start as soon as they free the remaining hostages.

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