BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) --A day after a bomb killed four police in Colombia's
capital, presumed leftist guerrillas on Saturday ambushed and killed five others along
a northern road, police said.

The five policemen were traveling in vehicles in Cesar province when the guerrillas
stopped them by detonating a bomb and then opening fire, National Police
spokeswoman Azucena Lievano told The Associated Press.

Although it wasn't immediately clear who was behind the ambush near Manaure,
about 370 miles north of Bogota, the capital, police suspect it was one of the two
main leftist rebel groups.

Authorities blame the nation's largest rebel army -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or FARC -- for Friday's explosion in Bogota that killed four police
officers and a five-year-old girl.

The bomb, planted on a bicycle, tore through a restaurant where the police officers
were having lunch.

The FARC have not commented on the explosion, but have claimed responsibility for
a recent wave of attacks throughout the country.

The violence comes as the government and the FARC try to negotiate a cease-fire to
end the 38-year conflict, which kills an estimated 3,500 people a year -- mostly
unarmed civilians.

The war sets the guerrillas against the government and a right-wing paramilitary
army.

Hours before news of Saturday's ambush, the ruling party's newly-appointed
presidential candidate urged the armed forces to strike back at the rebels.

The ruling Conservative Party chose Juan Camilo Restrepo on Friday to represent it
in May's presidential elections. Its current leader, President Andres Pastrana, is
constitutionally barred from seeking a second term.

"The road to peace cannot be a road toward institutional weakness," Restrepo said
Saturday during an interview with local radio.

The party's popularity has plummeted in recent years as Pastrana's peace efforts
have faltered, leaving many Colombians disillusioned with the three-year peace
process and demanding a tougher line against the rebels.

Restrepo -- a 55-year-old former senator, ambassador, and housing minister -- has
called for strengthening the armed forces and has promised to add jobs to the
county's struggling economy.

Meanwhile, the army said its soldiers killed five FARC fighters on Saturday in
southern Colombia while police accused the rebels of attacking police stations in five
towns late Friday.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.