BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia's top rebel leader Manuel "Sureshot"
                  Marulanda has accepted a proposal by President Andres Pastrana to meet face to
                  face in a rebel enclave to revive stalled peace talks, local media and police
                  intelligence sources said on Friday.

                  Pastrana raised the stakes of the slow-moving two-year peace process on
                  Wednesday when he gave the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
                  Colombia (FARC) until Sunday to meet him personally to salvage dialogues that
                  broke off last November.

                  A police intelligence officer, who asked not to be named, told Reuters, the
                  69-year-old "Sureshot" had agreed to meet Pastrana next Thursday.

                  A spokeswoman at the presidential palace could not confirm the report but told
                  Reuters the government's top peace negotiator, Camilo Gomez, flew early on
                  Friday to an undisclosed area in the Switzerland-sized territory controlled by
                  FARC in southern Colombia to meet rebel commanders.

                  Pastrana, who has bet his presidency on ending the South American nation's
                  four-decade civil war, extended until Sunday FARC control of the territory,
                  which he first declared off limits to the army in November of 1998 to provide a
                  safe and neutral venue for peace talks.

                  The brief extension was meant to put pressure on the FARC, which have made
                  no concessions in drawn-out talks and have continued attacking the army and
                  kidnapping civilians to the frustration of war-weary Colombians.

                  FARC rebels in San Vicente del Caguan, the largest town in the five-township
                  demilitarized area, were gathering journalists on Friday to meet with FARC senior
                  commanders for an official announcement, a Reuters correspondent in the area
                  said.

                  Local media said "Sureshot," who leads a 17,000-strong peasant army with
                  socialist demands, proposed that he and Pastrana discuss the $1 billion package
                  the United States is funding to help the Andean nation destroy the booming
                  cocaine trade that U.S. officials say supports the FARC.

                  The veteran rebel also proposed discussing next week in an exchange of
                  prisoners and outlawed right-wing death squads, which target rebels and
                  suspected collaborators.

                  Human rights groups say paramilitary organizations have links to the army and
                  that they are responsible for most of the 3,500 civilians killed every year in
                  Colombia's war.

                  The war pits leftist rebels against the army and paramilitary groups.

                     Copyright 2001 Reuters.