Ms Cordoba (speaking to reporters) helped arrange a release last February

Colombia's main leftist rebel group, the Farc, plans to release several high-profile hostages on Sunday, a prominent politician says.

Senator Piedad Cordoba, who helped negotiate a previous release, said she had been given exact co-ordinates for the location of the planned release.

She said that two local politicians and four security force members would be freed in three successive stages.

Colombia's army freed several top Farc hostages last July.

These included former presidential election candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Brazil are both involved in co-ordinating future releases and picking up the hostages in the release predicted by Ms Cordoba.

She told reporters: "I already have the coordinates, the liberation is under way and the first release will take place on Sunday, and there will be three successive handovers."

It would be the first voluntary move by the Farc to free hostages since February 2008, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brokered a deal to free four kidnapped Colombian politicians with the senator's help.

The rebel group, founded in 1964, has suffered a series of setbacks including the loss of senior commanders and numerous desertions.

President Alvaro Uribe has pursued a tough campaign against the rebels, driving them further into mountain and jungle areas.

The group is believed to currently hold 28 "political hostages" which it has tried to exchange for its jailed members.





