Necklace bomb blame shifts

FARC says right-wing paramilitaries want to discredit them

The left-wing Colombian rebels accused of killing a woman by placing a bomb around her neck have blamed right-wing paramilitaries for the attack.

A spokesman for the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) told the BBC that right-wing paramilitaries attached the bomb to Elvira Cortes to try to discredit them.

The bomb was fixed to Mrs Cortes's neck by armed men demanding a ransom.

It exploded as the bomb squad tried to defuse it.

Mrs Cortes and the explosives expert were killed.

Their deaths were filmed by the police and later broadcast on television.

Talks cancelled

The President of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, responded to the killings, last Monday, by suspending a key meeting with FARC later this month.

President Pastrana has already said FARC was responsible

But now Colombian Attorney General Alfonso Gomez says a group other than the FARC may have been responsible for the killings.

President Pastrana and Army General Fabio Bedoya had said the rebels were definitely responsible.

But the government's high commissioner for peace, Camila Gomez, said on Wednesday that the Pastrana administration would not be halting its overall efforts at pursuing peace talks with the leftist guerrillas.

"As far as the government is concerned, peace talks are not being interrupted.

"We have said we want to seek peace through dialogue, a political solution, social justice and the building of a new country for all Colombians," the peace commissioner said.

And the attorney general said an initial report submitted to his office "speaks of the possibility that a different group committed the assassination".

"Still, we have not excluded the possibility that it was the FARC that was responsible," Camila Gomez added.

Rebel denial

The rebels have adamantly denied involvement in the atrocity.

FARC spokesman Raul Reyes told reporters he believed the murder was perpetrated by opponents of the peace process.

An anti-narcotics unit is now part of the Colombian army

"We vigorously deny that this was committed by any member of our organisation," Mr Reyes said, adding that the president had been unduly hasty in cancelling talks.

The multinational meeting on drug cultivation was critical for the rebels, who have been accused of charging fees to coca leaf farmers and drug traffickers for growing crops and doing business on FARC-controlled territory.

The US Government has proposed a $1.6bn aid package for Colombia, with the bulk of the aid required to be used for purchasing US weapons and military equipment to battle drug traffickers.