Clash between Colombian army, rebels escalates into 'absolute war'; 65 dead

                  BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) --
                  At least 65 people were killed in clashes between Colombian Marxist rebels
                  and army troops after the rebels tried to storm the mountain hideout of a
                  rightist paramilitary squad leader, authorities said on Wednesday.

                  An army spokesman in northern Cordoba province said at least 32 soldiers
                  had died, which would make it the military's worst body count since the
                  government began formal peace talks with Revolutionary Armed Forces of
                  Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in January.

                  "This is a total and absolute war. Things are very complicated. We're fighting
                  (the guerrillas) with planes and armored helicopters," Gen. Victor Julio
                  Alvarez, head of the army's 1st Division, told reporters.

                  But the fighting looked unlikely to upset the timetable for peace talks with the
                  FARC. The latest round of the peace process -- the start of full-fledged
                  negotiations -- is due to begin July 6 in southeastern Colombia in a vast area
                  that has been cleared of state security forces.

                  The FARC has said negotiations aimed at ending Colombia's
                  three-decade-old civil conflict, which has claimed 35,000 lives in the past 10
                  years, must continue in the "midst of war" but has rejected calls for a
                  cease-fire.

                  FARC attack on paramilitary stronghold sparks battle

                  Alvarez said his troops came under fire Tuesday night as they hunted down a
                  500-strong FARC column, which local officials said had killed 10 peasants
                  and razed several homes Monday.

                  A spokesman at the army's 11th Brigade, based in regional capital Monteria,
                  put the death toll so far at 32 soldiers and 23 guerrillas.

                  Mario Carrascal, mayor of Puerto Libertador, close to the combat zone,
                  said the FARC had been trying to push into the Nudo de Paramillo mountain
                  range. The mountains are the stronghold of the rebels' bitterest enemy Carlos
                  Castano, head of an illegal, nationwide alliance of paramilitary squads known
                  as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

                  Castano has spearheaded a "dirty war" against the rebels and their
                  suspected sympathizers. He narrowly escaped death last December when
                  FARC rebels overran his camp, killing and mutilating 30 people.

                  In a call to the Caracol radio network, a regional AUC commander
                  identified only as "Omega" said the FARC had killed 38 soldiers in Tuesday
                  night's firefight. He added the AUC had killed 15 insurgents while four of
                  their own combatants had died.

                  International human rights groups have frequently accused the military of
                  sponsoring the death squads. After last year's assault on Castano's base, the
                  FARC claimed the army had sent in reinforcements to save the paramilitary
                  chieftain from almost certain death.

                  Both the government and the FARC have accepted there is no immediate
                  possibility of a cease-fire during the peace talks and that the war is likely to
                  rage unabated outside the Switzerland-sized demilitarized zone even as talks
                  continue.

                  ELN continues to hold hostages

                  This week's battle followed a series of attention-grabbing attacks by a
                  smaller guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which hijacked
                  a commercial airliner in northern Colombia in early April and kidnapped all
                  41 passengers and crew aboard.

                  In late May, the ELN kidnapped more than 150 worshippers during a mass
                  in a church in the southwest city of Cali -- an action it said was in reprisal for
                  a paramilitary massacre in northern Colombia.

                  The ELN is still holding at least 54 hostages from those two assaults,
                  prompting the government to break off all peace overtures with the group
                  until they are released.