Colombia peace talks set to begin

Jeremy McDermott
BBC News, Caracas

The ELN carried out hundreds of kidnappings and attacks

The Colombian government and the country's second-largest rebel group have announced the start of formal peace negotiations.

The National Liberation Army, or ELN, announced that it was ready to seek an end to its four-decade rebellion.

Both parties admitted there was a long and delicate process ahead before the ELN considered laying down its arms.

But the government hopes that peace with the group will assist its fight against the more powerful Farc rebels.

First step towards peace

After four rounds of exploratory talks in Cuba's capital, Havana, Colombia's peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and ELN military chief Antonio Garcia announced the formal establishment of a negotiating table.

The talks will aim to reach a peace agreement after 43 years of ELN fighting, and will continue in November and December.

The agreement comes after months of often difficult talks

But the chances of an end to violence in Colombia are not yet any closer.

The ELN - some 3,000-strong - is not regarded as a big player in the civil conflict, which has pitted left-wing rebels against the state and right-wing paramilitaries.

However, the government is keen to remove the ELN from the equation so that it can concentrate on the more powerful rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), with whom it has refused to talk, and the drugs trade that fuels the fighting.