BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY
  Special to The Herald

  BOGOTA - With only a week left to go in his four-year term, President Andrés Pastrana is seeking a last-minute deal with leftist guerrillas to swap 40 jailed rebels for
  dozens of political hostages held in jungle prisons, officials revealed Thursday.

  A government proposal for the swap was relayed last week to leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who are holding lawmakers, a former
  presidential candidate, a provincial governor and 47 police and military officers hostage as bargaining chips for just such an exchange.

  Pastrana said on Thursday he holds out hope that an agreement could be reached before he hands over power to President-elect Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday.

  SIMILAR SWAP

  ''We are now waiting for an answer from the FARC to know whether there is a will to release all the hostages,'' Pastrana said Thursday.

  In a similar swap last year before three-year peace talks collapsed, the FARC released some 350 soldiers captured in combat for 14 jailed rebels suffering a variety of
  physical ailments.

  Carlos Lozano, editor of the Communist Party weekly Voz who was involved in the negotiations with the rebels, which have ended, said he was asked to relay the
  proposal to top FARC commanders last Friday.

  ''The idea is to exchange 40 guerrillas convicted of rebellion, but not violent acts, for the political hostages,'' said Lozano, who sent the proposal to Gladys Marín, the
  FARC's representative in Europe, by e-mail.

  In her reply, Marín called the proposal ''very interesting'' and said she would pass it on to senior FARC commander Raúl Reyes, Lozano said.

  The proposal, however, did not detail which rebels would be freed, or how the exchange would be carried out, Lozano said.

  As a condition for a deal, the government insisted on the immediate release of the 3-year-old daughter of a mayor who is under threat from FARC, Lozano said. The girl, Francy Lorena Erazo, was released late Wednesday after being held for two weeks by the FARC in southern Putumayo province.

  ''We hope that this is a gesture to show that they [the FARC] want to progress on this issue,'' Pastrana said.

  Pastrana's government has been sharply criticized for failed peace talks with the FARC, which collapsed in February, and for failing to seek a solution to the growing
  number of kidnapped politicians the FARC deems ''swapable'' for its jailed commanders.

  Among the hostages held by the rebels are former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and her running mate Clara Rojas, Antioquia Gov. Guillermo Gaviria, five
  national lawmakers, 12 provincial legislators and several former ministers and governors. The FARC is also holding 47 police and military officers.

  SEEN UNLIKELY

  Political analyst Daniel García-Peña said that while the last-ditch effort to secure their release was laudable, it was highly unlikely an accord can be reached with the
  current government.

  ''An agreement now is not viable. But it does leave the issue on the table for the next government, which is positive,'' García-Peña said.

  Vice President-elect Francisco Santos declined to comment on the proposal and called for a ''prudent silence'' on the matter.