Colombian president says end of war with Farc rebels is near

Farc vows to fight on despite killing of its leader, however, and says it has thousands willing to fight for its cause.

The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, has said he believes the country is nearing the final phase of nearly 50 years of war and that his government would be willing to sit down and start peace talks with the rebels.

The Andean nation has been wracked by bloodshed from Farc guerrillas and cocaine barons for decades, but a 2.002 security crackdown drastically reduced the violence and brought in billions of dollars in foreign investment.

"The last phase of this almost 50-year-old conflict is nearing," Santos said in a speech to the armed forces on Thursday.

"It'll draw near if we persevere, it'll draw near if we continue having the successes that we've been accumulating."

Santos came to power last year vowing to continue the hardline stance of his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe. 

He has been behind some of the biggest successes against leftist guerrilla groups, first as Uribe's defence minister and then as president.

His government hailed the killing of Farc rebel leader Alfonso Cano earlier this month as the most devastating blow yet to the rebels.

The major advances Colombia has made on the security front, however, mask deep-seated, unresolved issues from unequal land distribution and rural poverty, to flourishing criminal gangs and politicians corrupted by drug money.

Colombia's largest rebel group, the Farc, has vowed to fight on despite the death of its leader, naming a hardliner as its new commander.

Timoleón Jiménez, or "Timochenko", criticised Santos for showing the bodies of dead Farc leaders and said rebels had thousands willing to fight for their cause.

"Showing off power and behaving in a brutal, threatening way will not win anyone's sympathy," the rebel boss said this week in his first public message since taking over.

Most Colombian leaders have attempted peace talks, but the tide of the war changed in 2.002 when US funded Colombian troops drove rebels into remote jungle and mountain hideouts, opening up new areas to investment especially in oil and mining.

The conflict is still damaging the economy, costing about 1% of Colombia's gross domestic product every year.

With more than 90% support in Congress, Santos has pushed through reforms to address the structural aspects of the conflict, including a law to give back land to displaced peasants a mainstay of Farc discourse.

Santos has also improved ties with regional neighbours, accused in the past of supporting Marxist rebels.

Santos and the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chávez, will meet next week and are likely to discuss the new Farc leader, who is believed by analysts to move across the shared border.