BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- The Colombian government, in a bid to jump start
                  stalled peace talks with Marxist rebels, said on Thursday it was nearing an agreement that
                  would open the door to the first exchange of prisoners in the country's long-running war.

                  President Andres Pastrana on Wednesday extended until the end of January a decree that
                  allows control of an area in southern Colombia the size of Switzerland to the Revolutionary
                  Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), where talks are being held.

                  But as Pastrana met with ambassadors to decide whether to renew the land-for-peace
                  deal, rebels launched a ferocious offensive in war-torn corners of Colombia that
                  killed at least six police officers and three civilians, authorities said on Thursday.

                  "This humanitarian exchange in which we are making swift progress will allow
                  soldiers and police officers in the hands of the FARC to return to their families as
                  soon as possible," Pastrana's peace commissioner Camilo Gomez told reporters.

                  It would be the first exchange of prisoners in a three-decade conflict that has claimed the lives of
                  35,000 civilians since 1990.

                  The FARC, Latin America's largest guerrilla army, is holding some 450 security force members and
                  has demanded the government swap them for an equal number of jailed rebels.

                  The government, which launched thus far fruitless peace talks with the 17,000-strong FARC
                  two years ago, has in the past cited multiple legal obstacles to a prisoner exchange, including the
                  fact that many jailed rebels are serving time for crimes including kidnapping, extortion and
                  murder.

                  On Thursday, Gomez said sick or injured
                  prisoners would be among those exchanged first, but said the deal could expand
                  into a "broader accord." He did not indicate when nor how the swap would take
                  place but said the tentative agreement was reached after he met in the
                  demilitarized area over the weekend with the FARC's top commander, Manuel
                  "Sureshot" Marulanda.

                  The FARC has maintained a conspicuous silence on the government's latest
                  peace overtures.

                  Talks to bring peace to this tormented South American nation plunged into crisis
                  after FARC commanders on Nov. 14 broke off negotiations, accusing the
                  government of failing to halt "terrorism" by ultra-rightists.

                  The swap would be the first major breakthrough in a peace process increasingly
                  seen by war-weary Colombians as futile.

                  FARC say Plan Colombia threatens peace

                  Casting a shadow on the talks, Alfonso Cano, the FARC's top ideologue, warned
                  on Wednesday that Pastrana's so-called Plan Colombia threatened to derail peace
                  efforts altogether.

                  Under the plan, which is backed by a package of $1.3 billion in mostly military
                  aid from the United States, the army and police are preparing to launch a major
                  offensive against illicit crops of coca, the raw material for cocaine, and
                  long-standing FARC strongholds in southern Colombia.

                   Aiming to "defrost" the talks, Pastrana signed a presidential decree on
                   Wednesday night to extend the land-for-peace deal until January 31.

                   Meanwhile, a column of about 100 FARC rebels detonated a powerful car
                   bomb and rained homemade mortars on a mountainside police station in
                   northeastern Colombia, killing at least three police officers and three civilians,
                   authorities said on Thursday.

                  There are fears that more civilians could be buried under tons of rubble in the
                  town of Granada following the attack Wednesday and Thursday, in which eight
                  FARC rebels also were killed.

                  TV images showed a block of houses leveled to the ground. Police officials said
                  the rebels launched propane gas cylinders packed with explosives and shrapnel --
                  a favored FARC war weapon.

                  "Those barbarians have no heart," Norbay Munoz, a police officer said as he
                  walked away from a mound of rubble

                  A second attack in the southeastern town of Cisneros also on Wednesday killed
                  at least three other police officers.

                      Copyright 2000 Reuters.