By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 8 -- Seeking to salvage a faltering peace initiative, President Andres Pastrana ventured into a guerrilla-held patch of jungle today to sit
with Colombia's most powerful rebel leader and look for a way to spare their battered country from a broader war.

Under a downpour in the steamy southern jungle, Pastrana huddled throughout the day with Manuel Marulanda, who has spent more than half his 70 years fighting
the government as head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The two embraced gingerly surrounded by rebels in camouflage uniforms in the
Switzerland-size region that Pastrana cleared of security forces two years ago to foster peace talks. They then moved into a thatched pavilion for their discussions.

"Everyone wants peace," Marulanda said in a passing remark to a television reporter. "Hope is the last thing one loses."

The talks, held in the village of Los Pozos, about 200 miles south of Bogota, the capital, gave Pastrana and Marulanda what could be their last opportunity to revive
the stalled peace process, Colombian officials said. Pastrana and Marulanda emerged late this afternoon and declared that the talks had been cordial and useful but
that another day of discussions would be needed.

"We have decided to meet and continue this conversation tomorrow," said Pastrana, who planned to spend the night at a vacant military base near the meeting site.
"The meeting was very productive, and we will continue working."

Standing at Pastrana's side, Marulanda said, "I feel very satisfied about this meeting and back the words of the president."

The meeting came at a perilous moment for Pastrana's peace campaign, which has long been viewed with skepticism in Washington. U.S. officials have promoted a
harder line against the FARC, which they say has taken on a major role in drug smuggling. A key goal of the $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug aid package for Colombia,
the bulk of which is military hardware and training for anti-drug battalions, is to eliminate the cocaine production that is the FARC's chief source of revenue.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said in Washington that "the government of Colombia must be free to make its own decision on what would yield
progress in the peace process. We have always said we would welcome developments that help Colombia move toward peace, national reconciliation and progress
against narcotics traffic." But State Department officials said that, while wishing Pastrana well, they were not holding their breath.

Guerrilla negotiators withdrew from the peace talks in November and had refused to return unless Pastrana addressed the rising power of privately funded
paramilitary groups that are battling the guerrillas. They had also requested a discussion of the effects of Plan Colombia, as the anti-drug strategy is known. Pastrana,
elected in June 1998 on a pledge to end decades of civil war, must decide Friday whether to keep the demilitarized zone open or effectively abandon the peace
process in favor of a military approach backed by an increasing number of Colombians.

A more bellicose strategy likely would increase civil conflict in a country that last year registered an average of 71 violent deaths a day. Pastrana's plunge into guerrilla
territory with only a small contingent of bodyguards underscored his desire to keep even an imperfect peace process alive in light of its harsh alternative.

"He is trying to catch a bull by the horns," said Horacio Serpa, leader of the opposition Liberal Party. "If this process cannot be restarted after a meeting of these two
men, then it is broken beyond repair."

In recent weeks, Pastrana has been under growing public pressure, particularly from conservatives, to secure concessions from the guerrillas in return for extending
the term of the zone. The FARC has also come under pressure, primarily from European diplomats and international intermediaries, to rejoin the talks. Any guerrilla
concession would help counter growing public opinion that the 17,000-member rebel group was participating in the process to bide time while it consolidated its
armed strength across the country.

Pastrana, who called for the meeting last week, is seeking first to coax the FARC back to the peace table. He also hopes to arrange an exchange of rebel prisoners
for captured members of Colombia's security forces, about 450 of whom remain in FARC open-air prisons in the demilitarized zone.

The president is likely to propose that international observers be allowed to monitor the demilitarized zone for human rights abuses and, perhaps, to help mediate
peace negotiations. A similar international presence was contemplated when Pastrana created the zone in November 1998, but FARC leaders have resisted.

Marulanda, known as "Sure Shot," agreed to meet Pastrana only if the agenda included Plan Colombia, a prisoner exchange accord and government plans to battle
the rebels' paramilitary rivals, who are flourishing across the country. With an estimated 8,000 members, the paramilitary forces pose perhaps the biggest threat to the
FARC.

Rebel negotiators left the peace table to protest what they alleged was the government's failure to take on the paramilitary groups, known as the United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia, which also profit enormously from Colombia's drug trade. International human rights groups have called on the government to crack down on
the paramilitary forces, accusing security forces of sometimes working with them against the guerrillas.

Marulanda, the son of a farmer, and Pastrana, the son of a president, have both benefited from their relationship. Marulanda publicly supported Pastrana's candidacy,
making him the "peace candidate" and helping him win a close election. Before Pastrana took office in August 1998, he met with the guerrilla leader to signal the
lengths he intended to go to secure peace.

The two men have met twice since but never with the stakes so high. Upon arriving in the zone with two physicians, a priest, his private secretary and his chief peace
negotiator, Pastrana greeted Marulanda and walked among the rebels. At one point, a young female guerrilla darted out to drape a khaki-green raincoat over the
president's shoulders, squeezing him affectionately in the process.

Staff writer Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.

                                               © 2001