Colombian govt to hold meeting with rebel ELN in Cuba
The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second largest rebel group in the country, have agreed to hold an "informal exploratory meeting"in Havana, Cuba, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe announced Tuesday.

"The Colombian government and the ELN thank the government and the people of Cuba for their hospitality, for offering their territory to make this peace effort possible," the president said in a brief communique.

A note to launch preliminary peace talks was signed by the high comissioner for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, and the ELN spokesman known as "Franscisco Galan," the alias of Gerardo Bermudez who was temporarily released on Sep. 7 to act as a go-between of the two parties.

The president's office said Galan had been given three more months' bail because he is a representative of the ELN. Galan and the ELN's military commander, Anthony Garcia, will meet some time after Dec. 12 in Cuba, which will set a timetable for further talks.

The ELN, along with the largest Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been battling the government troops since 1964. The decades-long civil war kills about 3,500 people every year.

Uribe last year brokered a peace deal with another major rebel group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). More than half of the AUC's 20,000 fighters have demobilized with the rest expected to disarm in the coming months.

The FARC has shunned peace negotiations despite appeals from Uribe for an end to the time-honored conflict.