BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Army units chased rebels into a mountainous
                  zone south of Bogota Sunday, a day after the heaviest fighting in months
                  killed at least 50 people.

                  Sporadic clashes between the army and leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary
                  Armed Forces of Colombia continued into Sunday near the town of
                  Guayabetal, 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the capital of Bogota.

                  The rebels tried to take over the town on Saturday but were repelled by
                  some 1,000 security troops backed up by the Colombian Air Force. On
                  Sunday, the town was squarely in government hands, said a statement from
                  the army's press office.

                  Army commander Gen. Fernando Tapias said 44 rebels died in the fighting
                  on Saturday. In addition, five soldiers and a policeman were reported killed.

                  The army said the original offensive was carried out by 500 FARC rebels.

                  It was the worst fighting in Colombia in six months.

                  The FARC is one of two main guerrilla groups that have been fighting the
                  Colombian state for more than 35 years. Some 30,000 people have died in
                  the civil war.

                  Saturday's fighting occurred on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State
                  Madeleine Albright visited the northern Colombian city of Cartagena to
                  promote a proposed $1.6 billion aid package to help Colombia fight drugs.

                  As she met with Colombian officials, FARC rebel commanders attending
                  peace talks in a southern jungle lambasted the proposed aid, saying it will
                  only worsen the country's armed conflict.

                  The guerrillas control about a third of the nation, earning huge payoffs from
                  protecting drug traffickers' operations and taxing peasants who grow illegal
                  drug crops.

                  Many Colombians believe it's ridiculous to say the proposed U.S. aid is for
                  fighting drugs, not the rebels, given the blurred line between the two.

                  On Sunday, a Colombian television reporter covering the fighting near
                  Bogota was injured in the stomach when a peasant who was guiding her
                  mishandled a grenade that exploded in his hands. The peasant, whose
                  identity was not immediately known, died instantly.

                    Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.