Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is unlikely to broker the freedom of hostages held by Colombia's biggest guerrilla group, Colombia's Interior Minister Carlos Holguin said.

Chavez, who has offered to talk face-to-face with rebel leaders, met with Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe during a visit to Bogota today to push efforts to exchange 45 hostages for about 500 jailed members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He also met with Holguin and Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo.

``We have to see what alternatives or initiatives he presents,'' Holguin said in an interview at his office in Bogota before Chavez's visit. ``Each meeting between Chavez and President Uribe is constructive in general, so this will be too, but on this issue, I see it as very difficult.''

Holguin, 66, said he believes the FARC, as the group is known, has no intention of freeing the hostages since it has rejected every effort of Uribe's to show flexibility. Uribe in June freed 150 jailed guerrillas in the failed hope the FARC would move ahead with a swap that included three U.S. citizens and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

``I am very pessimistic about it,'' said Holguin, who took office in August 2006. ``They have a concept that they have the key to political power.''

Safe Haven

Chavez, 53, who recently called FARC founder Manuel Marulanda a ``great Colombian,'' met in Caracas Aug. 20 with family members of the hostages, some of whom have been held in jungle camps for more than a decade. The Venezuelan president said today he's made contact with FARC representatives about setting up a meeting in Venezuela.

``We've always said we are at Colombia's disposal, to honestly try to help,'' he said in comments broadcast by Venezuelan state television. ``I'm optimistic.''

His offer to provide an area in Venezuela to make the swap was rejected by the FARC, which holds as many as 3,222 prisoners, according to Fundacion Pais Libre, a nongovernment organization that assists kidnap victims and their families.

``If President Chavez is successful, he'll be like a hero for Colombians,'' said Fernando Gerbasi, a former Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia, on Globovision. ``If he's not successful, at least he's tried.''

Hostage Swap

Millions of people throughout Colombia last month protested the murder of 11 hostage lawmakers just weeks after Uribe freed the captured guerrillas, including the highest-ranking jailed rebel leader, Rodrigo Granda.

The deaths of the lawmakers derailed joint efforts by France and Colombia to negotiate an exchange of prisoners.

Uribe has refused the guerrillas' demand to remove troops from an area the size of New York to facilitate a hostage swap. In a bid to prompt peace talks, former President Andres Pastrana in 1998 granted the FARC a safe haven, which it used to build up arms, run drug-trafficking operations and plan kidnappings.

``We will continue to ask for the demilitarization of Pradera and Florida and we ask President Chavez, given his political weight, to help achieve this demilitarized zone,'' Raul Reyes, FARC spokesman, said in an interview with Argentina's daily Clarin published Aug. 26.

Colombian guerrillas, who have praised Chavez' Bolivarian revolution, have taken thousands of so-called economic hostages to raise funds for weapons purchases and to continue their battle against the government. The 45 prisoners under discussion are considered political captives, used as bargaining leverage against the government.

``The FARC is very complex; it's a way of living. It's also an ideology, and they see Chavez as a hero,'' said Gerbasi.

Drug Funds

Holguin said Uribe is running out of tools to negotiate with the guerrillas.

``The government is reaching the limits of its flexibility,'' said Holguin, a former mayor of Cali. ``Uribe has shown immense flexibility; and the FARC, where are they? The same as the first day.''

Since his election in 2002, Uribe has launched a military crackdown on the FARC and on the smaller National Liberation Army, as well as their rightist paramilitary foes. He was re-elected last year with 62 percent of the vote on pledges to end four decades of violence among guerrillas, paramilitary fighters and the government.

Kidnappings have declined by 83 percent since 2002 and homicides are down 40 percent, according to government figures. About 40,000 paramilitary and guerrilla fighters have handed in their weapons in return for reduced jails sentences and job training.

The FARC began in 1964, when Marulanda and 48 rebels were attacked in a jungle hideout by thousands of troops. It has since battled 11 administrations. The group turned a poorly armed band of peasants fighting for survival and land reform into a uniformed army of about 17,000 fighters armed with modern weapons, financed by drug funds and ransom payments.

``Their struggle has no connection with political ideals,'' Holguin said. ``But as long as we can't eradicate drugs, it will be very difficult to see an eradication of the violence.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Helen Murphy in Bogota at Hmurphy1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 31, 2007 20:59 EDT