COLOMBIA'S FARC rebel group will seek a ceasefire in Latin America's oldest armed conflict when peace talks begin next month with the government.

"We will propose a ceasefire as soon as we sit down at the negotiating table," Mauricio Jaramillo said at a news conference here, insisting there would be a "bilateral disarmament."

The talks are due to begin in Oslo next month and then move to Havana, the first attempt in a decade to reach a negotiated end to an armed conflict that began in 1964 with the founding of the Revolutionary Army of Colombia.

Mr Jaramillo said the rebels also would demand that Simon Trinidad, a FARC leader imprisoned in the United States, be allowed to join the negotiations.

Mr Trinidad, whose real name is Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda, was arrested in Quito in November 2004 and extradited to the United States where he is serving a 60 year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.

Mr Jaramillo denied the FARC was involved in drug trafficking and also declared that the guerrilla group was no longer in the business of kidnapping.

Originally published as Truce may be called in Colombian conflict