Reports suggest at least 60 police officers, soldiers and civilians died in the fighting, but this has not been officially confirmed.

Colombia's elite counter-insurgency troops took more than a full day to retake the jungle town.

The fate of some 120 police officers in the town remains unclear after the police station was destroyed by the rebels.

Commitment to peace talks

The rebel attack comes just days before the authorities are planning to withdraw troops from large areas of Colombia as part of peace efforts.

President Andres Pastrana has said despite the violence he remains committed to holding talks with the rebels.

FARC rebels control around a third of the country's territory

Elsewhere in the country, the government is withdrawing all troops from an area of jungle the size of Switzerland so that talks may begin with the guerrillas as early as next week.

The FARC rebels have destroyed three major government bases in the last 12 months.

The group has insisted that negotiations must go on in the "middle of the war".

It has said that its members will not lay down their weapons or demobilise before or after any peace deal and aim to win at least a part-share of national power.

Drug funds

The FARC is Colombia's oldest and largest guerrilla group, numbering about 15,000 fighters.

It has been waging a war for 40 years, and is estimated to control more than one-third of the national territory.

It has grown dramatically in power over the last five years, funding the war by kidnapping and taxation of Colombia's drug trade.

The Marxist group is demanding an end to free market economics and sweeping land reform.

More than 35,000 people have died in the last 10 years of Colombia's long-running civil war.