Caracas: President Hugo Chavez has urged world leaders to support efforts to negotiate the release of more rebel-held hostages, including three Americans, after leftist guerrillas freed two high-profile captives in Colombia.

"I ask for help from the governments of Latin America, from the governments of the world, so we free all of them," Chavez told reporters in Guatemala. "We can achieve the liberation of all of them."

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, released Colombians Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez to Venezuelan officials last week, after about six years in captivity.

Chavez said even the most high-profile hostages could eventually be freed, such as former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three American defence contractors whose plane went down in rebel territory in 2003.

Chavez, who yesterday attended the inauguration of Guatemala's new leftist president, Alvaro Colom, recalled that country's transformation after 36 years of bloody civil war.

"Today Guatemala enjoys peace. If that happened here, can't it also happen in Colombia?" he asked. The former captive Gonzalez, meanwhile, left Venezuela for Colombia yesterday, four days after being reunited with relatives in Caracas.

"I am going away deeply thankful," the former congresswoman said before boarding a plane in a white T-shirt that read: "Freedom for all now!"

Source : PTI