BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Fierce combat between far-right
                 paramilitary outlaws, leftist rebels and the army over the past two days has
                 claimed at least 78 lives in northwestern Colombia, with almost all of the
                 dead believed to be fighters from illegal armed groups, authorities said on
                 Thursday.

                 The toll from the clashes which took place mostly on Tuesday was one of the
                 highest in recent months in Colombia's decades-old guerrilla war. The body count,
                 which stood at 28 on Wednesday, rose to 78 after more bodies were discovered,
                 the army said.

                 The Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and
                 paramilitaries fought near the village of Campamento, in Antioquia province, about
                 200 miles (300 km) northwest of Bogota.

                 The army said it subsequently entered the area on Wednesday, killing 12 FARC
                 rebels. One soldier was killed, it said.

                 The 17,000-member FARC, Latin America's largest and oldest rebel force, are
                 waging an armed campaign to take this mountainous zone from ultra-right gunmen,
                 who human rights groups say have deep ties to some sectors of the armed forces.

                 Colombians will head to the polls on May 26 to elect the next president -- with the
                 intensification of the country's 38-year-old war apparently driving public sentiment.

                 The largely rural conflict, increasingly fueled by the drug trade, claims the lives of
                 about 3,500 people every year.

                 Opinion polls favor tough-talking Alvaro Uribe, a former governor of Antioquia,
                 who has pledged to crack down on rebels and restore law and order.

                 President Andres Pastrana, whose peace efforts with the FARC ended in failure in
                 February, is constitutionally bared from seeking another four-year term.

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