By TIM JOHNSON
             Herald Staff Writer

             BOGOTA, Colombia -- A recent series of meetings between a Colombian rebel
             leader and a mid-level U.S. diplomat did not contradict State Department policy
             of shunning contact with ``terrorist'' groups, a State Department spokesman said
             Monday.

             The Dec. 13-14 meetings brought together Raul Reyes, a leader of the
             Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and a State Department
             envoy.

             ``We participated in this meeting to demonstrate our support for the Colombian
             peace process,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin said, adding that
             further meetings are possible.

             Rubin denied that the encounter violated a U.S. policy of isolating any of 30
             groups it designated in late 1997 as foreign terrorist organizations. The FARC is
             on the list.

             ``Nothing in this determination precludes the U.S. government from meetings with
             the FARC or any other foreign terrorist organization if we determine that such a
             meeting is consistent with our interests, including bringing an end to Colombia's
             long-running civil conflict and to the terrorist attacks that accompany it,'' Rubin
             said in Washington.

             Rubin said the envoy pressed the FARC to account for several kidnapped U.S.
             citizens and explained ``that the U.S.-Colombian counter-narcotics efforts,
             including aerial eradication, are nonnegotiable and will be continued.''

             Washington says that as many as 70 percent of FARC rebel units are involved in
             protecting coca and poppy crops vital to the cocaine and heroin trades.

             President Andres Pastrana of Colombia has said that FARC negotiators tell him
             they will stop protecting coca crops if enough development money arrives in
             drug-producing regions to offer alternative livelihood to poor farmers.

             Rubin did not identify the U.S. envoy, although another State Department source
             said he was Phillip Chicola, director of the office of Andean affairs.

             FARC delegates traveling in Panama and Mexico have sought contact with U.S.
             officials since early 1997, although December's meeting was the first face-to-face
             encounter, sources said.

             The December meetings were held in the home of Alvaro Leyva, a conservative
             Colombian politician who lives in exile in San Jose, Costa Rica, the sources said.
             Trusted by the FARC leadership, Leyva has served as a go-between for
             upcoming peace talks, which begin Thursday in the Colombian jungle town of San
             Vicente del Caguan.

             The talks will kick off with a historic encounter between Pastrana and legendary
             FARC leader Manuel ``Sure Shot'' Marulanda, who has not been seen in public
             for more than three decades.
 

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