Caracas: Venezuelan lawmakers yesterday passed a resolution describing Colombia's FARC and ELN rebels as "belligerents," following President Hugo Chavez call to the world to stop labeling them terrorists.

With only seven lawmakers abstaining from the vote, the single chamber National Assembly made up almost exclusively of Chavez loyalists issued a statement rejecting "unilateral lists imposed by the United States" branding the FARC and ELN as terrorist groups.

The lawmakers recognized "the belligerent status of insurgent movements Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) to show we re willing to deal with them in a political framework that can build trust in upcoming negotiations, on the road to peace in Colombia."

The resolution is likely to increase friction with Colombia over Chavez's recognition last week of the FARC and ELN as "real" armies with political goals that must be respected.

Chavez also urged governments to remove the terror label. Chavez, who helped engineer FARC's January 10 release of two Colombian politicians, said the guerrilla groups "are not any terrorist body, they are real armies that occupy territory in Colombia."

"They must be recognized, they are insurgent forces that have a political project ... Which here is respected," he added. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe flatly rejected the call and his government on Wednesday accused Chavez of interfering in Colombia s internal affairs.

Source : PTI