Colombian warlord admits kidnapping MPs

Mr Castano accuses the government of giving in to rebels

A right-wing Colombian paramilitary leader has admitted kidnapping several members of the country's parliament.

Carlos Castano, the leader of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), said the kidnap was a response to the government's policy of negotiating with left-wing rebel groups.

The victims, seized over the past two weeks, include a former president of the Senate, Zulema Jattin, who recently headed a congressional peace commission.

Nobody doubts in the slightest that the FARC is laughing at the president and Colombia

Carlos Castano

"Kidnapping is a way of telling the president that we're not willing to tolerate his misguided way of negotiating," he told RCN radio.

"Nobody doubts in the slightest that the FARC is laughing at the president and Colombia," he said, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest of the rebel groups.

Castano reportedly suggested that he would swap his hostages for all those currently held by the guerrillas, believed to be as many as 1,500.

But government officials said that they would not be dictated to by Mr Castano.

"To cede to such intimidation would be the beginning of the dissolution of our democracy," Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle said.