BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- U.S. diplomats have met secretly with a
                  Colombian guerrilla faction that Washington considers a terrorist
                  organization, U.S. and Colombian officials confirmed Sunday.

                  State Department officials met in Costa Rica with members of the
                  15,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and a
                  government representative, said Colombian presidential peace envoy Victor
                  G. Ricardo. He declined to give details but said that "everything (discussed)
                  was related to the peace process."

                  A U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
                  anonymity also confirmed the meeting.

                  Officials only acknowledged the meeting after it was revealed Sunday in a
                  Colombian newspaper.

                  The powerful rebel insurgency plans to enter negotiations with the
                  Colombian government Thursday, and American officials have taken a keen
                  interest in the peace talks. They see them as an opportunity to curb cocaine
                  production, their top priority in Colombia.

                  The U.S. government lists the leftist FARC -- which has kidnapped and
                  killed U.S. citizens as well as Colombians -- as a terrorist organization.

                  The FARC has indicated it would help attack drug trafficking as part of a
                  peace settlement. The rebels now encourage the drug trade, protecting
                  peasants who grow illegal drug crops and taking payoffs for guarding drug
                  traffickers' laboratories and airstrips.

                  The U.S. official would not say when the meeting occurred, and denied local
                  media reports that Peter Romero, the State Department's top envoy for
                  Latin America, was in attendance. "It was at a lower level," said the official.

                  El Tiempo newspaper reported Sunday that Romero had met in Costa Rica
                  around Dec. 25 with top FARC commander Raul Reyes.

                  Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.