Colombia's Uribe hails rescue

Jimenez was released unharmed

The Colombian Government says the rescue of two churchmen kidnapped four days ago by suspected left-wing rebels is a major triumph for its hard-line security policies.

The head of the Latin American Bishop's conference, Jorge Enrique Jimenez, and parish priest Desiderio Orjuela were released unharmed after troops stormed a rebel hideout on Friday, killing one guerrilla.

It is a great success for the army

Defence Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez

The operation followed a tip-off from civilians seeking to claim a reward under a scheme launched by President Alvaro Uribe which pays large sums of money to civilian informants.

President Uribe congratulated ordinary citizens for their part in the rescue.

"Congratulations to the Colombian soldiers, to the policemen and to the Colombian citizens who co-operated, who gave information. The defence minister is going to pay the rewards we offered," he said.

Bishop Jimenez thanked Father Orjuela for staying with him in captivity despite being told by the rebels he could go free.

The two men were abducted from a village some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Bogota on Monday and the Colombian Government launched a massive military operation to track them down.

"It is a great success for the army," Defence Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez told reporters in Bogota confirming the rescue.

Abducted at gunpoint

The 60-year-old bishop was reportedly seized by three or four members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's oldest and best-armed rebel group.

Zipaquira residents took to the streets in protest

Gunmen stopped the bishop's car at about 1000 local time (1500 GMT) on Monday as the clerics were on their way to perform a religious ceremony in the town of Pacho, 55km (35 miles) north of the Colombian capital.

The clergymen's driver, who was released along with a teacher who was also in the vehicle, alerted the authorities.

Mr Jimenez serves as archbishop of Zipaquira, near Bogota, and residents there reacted emotionally to the kidnapping, marching through the streets to demand the clerics' release.

Prominent figure

Pope John Paul II also appealed for the safe release of the two clergymen, and called on the kidnappers to abandon all forms of violence.

The bishops' conference co-ordinates church activity in 22 Latin American states which account for nearly half of the world's Roman Catholics.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a priest, with most of the attacks against clergy being carried out by Marxist guerrillas.

More than 20 priests and two bishops have been killed in the Colombian civil war since 1989.

Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino of Cali, an outspoken critic of the rebels, was shot dead at point blank range in March as he left a church in a poor neighbourhood - a killing which shocked the country.