By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana has reached a
          preliminary agreement with Colombia's second-largest rebel army
          to withdraw government troops from a northern region as a condition for
          opening peace talks.

          Pastrana, however, specified neither a timetable nor the geographical
          confines for the pullout zone. Instead, he announced Monday "a general
          framework of an understanding" with the leftist National Liberation Army,
          or ELN.

          The demilitarized zone would be the second conceded to a leftist rebel
          band by Pastrana since he took office in August 1998 after running a
          single-issue campaign focused on promises to end 36 years of civil strife.

          Pastrana granted the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
          FARC, a Switzerland-sized southern region 17 months ago as a
          condition for launching peace talks that have proceeded at a snail's pace
          -- without a cease-fire.

          The ELN's leader, Nicolas Rodriguez, told Radionet network his
          movement had reached "a basic accord" with the government to convene
          a "national convention" in the pullout zone as a prelude to peace talks.

          The Cuban-inspired ELN, with an estimated 5,000 combatants, has
          recently tested the nation with a withering sabotage campaign, knocking
          out electrical power to millions by dynamiting power pylons and snarling
          major highways with attacks on commercial traffic.

          Last year, it seized everyone aboard a domestic airliner and celebrants of
          a Catholic Mass to push its desire for political recognition equal to what
          the FARC received.

          The ELN has released all but five of the nearly 200 airplane and Mass
          hostages -- and declared an Easter week truce that coincided with
          negotiations in which Colombia's ambassador to Cuba, Julio Londono,
          presided over the government delegation.

          But the rebel band also vowed not to cease hostilities until granted its
          own demilitarized zone in its traditional stronghold in the northern state of
          Bolivar.

          That proposed zone differs vastly, however, from the southern region
          granted the FARC. Right-wing paramilitary fighters have infiltrated the
          traditional ELN stronghold, which is rich in gold and in illegal cocaine
          cultivation and includes Colombia's principal waterway, the Magdalena
          River.

          In addition, thousands of peasants have launched dayslong protests
          against the demilitarized zone, snarling traffic on major north-south
          highways.

          Both Pastrana and Rodriguez said international and domestic observers
          would monitor the peace process with the ELN.

          The rebel commander said the pullout zone would comprise San Pablo
          and Cantagallo counties in Bolivar and Yondo county in Antioquia state
          to the west.

          "With the present agreement we are seeking to make serious steps in
          constructing a solution to the conflict by means different from war," said
          Rodriguez.