Caracas: Venezuela announced it was normalising diplomatic ties with neighbouring Colombia immediately, a week after it severed relations over Bogota's cross-border raid into Ecuador.

After the regional crisis was settled at a Rio Group meeting in Santo Domingo, Caracas "has decided to re-establish the regular functioning of its diplomatic relations with the government of Colombia," a foreign ministry statement said yesterday.

Staff will be transferred to Bogota immediately, it said.

Tensions between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela already had subsided after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to pull back troops deployed along the border with Colombia.

"The troops will start returning tomorrow and will be allowed to go on Easter leave," the Venezuelan leader announced late Saturday.

Chavez had deployed 10 army battalions to the Colombian border in the wake of Colombia s deadly March 1 raid on a rebel camp inside Ecuador, prompting Quito and Caracas to suspend relations with Bogota.

The three countries resolved the dispute at a Latin American summit in Santo Domingo Friday, with Colombia promising never to repeat such a raid again.

To general surprise, Chavez, who only days earlier had been stoking the fires, intervened during the summit to ease regional tensions and set himself up as the agent of peace.
Source : PTI