Guatemala's new President Alvaro Colom said yesterday he would open army files for the first time to make public details of massacres and torture by soldiers during the country's 36-year civil war.

"We are going to make all of the army's archives public so we can know the truth, to start building on a foundation of truth and justice," said Mr Colom, who beat a right-wing former general to take office in January.

Almost a quarter of a million people were killed or "disappeared" during the 1960-1996 conflict between leftist guerrillas and the government. More than 80 per cent of the murders were committed by the army, according to a United Nations-backed truth commission.