Colombia troop pullout ordered in preparation
            for peace talks

                  BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- President Andres Pastrana ordered all
                  government troops Wednesday to start pulling out of a huge area of
                  southeast Colombia -- a swath of land as big as Switzerland -- in preparation
                  for the start of peace talks with the country's largest rebel force.

                  Pastrana made the announcement Wednesday night from the presidential
                  palace in Bogota. The surprise decision means some 4,000 soldiers must
                  withdraw from the zone by November 7. The demilitarization is due to
                  remain in force for 90 days until February 7.

                  The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest Marxist
                  guerrilla group in the hemisphere, welcomed the move as a "positive step" in
                  the search for a peaceful solution to the country's three-decade-old civil
                  conflict.

                  Government officials said the pullout, which began Wednesday, would be
                  gradual and verified by a commission including the International Red Cross.

                  "I have taken the decision to order the demilitarization of the municipalities of
                  Uribe, Mesetas, Macarena, and Vista Hermosa (in eastern) Meta province
                  and of San Vicente (in southern) Caqueta province," Pastrana said.

                  "This measure will make way for talks between the government and the
                  FARC which could open the way to a consolidated and lasting peace," he
                  added.

                  Quest for peace a top priority

                    Pastrana took office two months ago with a pledge to make the quest for
                    peace his top priority. Even before he was officially sworn in as president he
                    paid a daring visit to a secret jungle camp to meet the FARC's veteran
                    leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda.

                    In that meeting, Pastrana agreed to demilitarize the 15,000-square-mile
                    zone to guarantee the safety of rebel negotiators attending the talks.

                  One of Pastrana's envoys has already held preliminary talks with the
                  Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second
                  guerrilla force, and has agreed to future meetings.

                  The FARC has seen its military and political prowess surge in the last two
                  years on the back of a series of devastating strikes against the military. U.S.
                  officials have warned the group could take power by force in five years and
                  say it is posing a threat to regional stability.

                  Marco Leon Calarca, international FARC spokesman, hailed the
                  demilitarization announcement and said rebel fighters would establish
                  "verification procedures" to check when the process was complete.

                  But he reiterated that the FARC did not view the talks as negotiations but
                  rather as conversations.

                  "These are not negotiations because we have nothing to negotiate ... It is to
                  discuss the kind of Colombia we want," he said.

                  Prisoner swap

                  The FARC, at its strongest ever and holding 245 police officers and soldiers
                  captured over the past year, has said it will exchange them for hundreds of
                  jailed FARC fighters.

                  But Calarca said a prisoner swap would not necessarily have to be a prelude
                  to talks with the government.

                  Some army officers have privately warned against the demilitarization and
                  fear the FARC will use the area to plan attacks in other parts of Colombia
                  or take advantage of the absence of troops to smuggle out huge quantities of
                  cocaine from the region.

                  The FARC, however, denies involvement in drug trafficking. The
                  demilitarized area is a prime cultivation, processing and transit center for
                  coca, the raw material of cocaine.

                  Its 15,000 combatants control vast rural areas of Colombia, funding their
                  armed struggle through kidnapping and "war taxes" on the drug trade.

                  The mayor of the most populous municipality in the zone told Radionet radio
                  that people were concerned about living under rebel rule.

                  "The people have a lot of expectations and a lot of worries," said Omar
                  Garcia, the mayor of San Vicente del Caguan. "The doubts have still not
                  been cleared up.

                  The commander of the armed forces, Gen. Fernando Tapias, said the
                  military would guarantee the safety of any of the zone's estimated 80,000
                  inhabitants who want to leave.

                  Colombia's civil conflict began in the mid-1960s and has claimed more than
                  35,000 lives in the last decade alone.

                       The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.