Bogota - Eight Colombian soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash with leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the northeastern Perija mountains on the Venezuelan border.

"Unfortunately eight military officers died today in ... the province of La Guajira. The events took place in the early hours as the soldiers were ambushed by FARC," said La Guajira Interior Minister Jose Ballesteros.

Army reinforcements were sent to the site of the clash in the town of Villanueva, Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

Colombian media reports said the rebels escaped to Venezuelan territory following the encounter with the military.

Bogota  - Seven Colombian soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash with leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the northeastern Perija mountains, on the Venezuelan border.

"Unfortunately seven military officers were murdered. We deeply regret it and we are investigating exactly what happened to these military officers," said Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

Army reinforcements were sent to the site of the clash, in the town of Villanueva, Santos said.

Madrid - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday defended Cuba's reintegration into the Inter-American Community from which the island was excluded in 1962 because of its communist regime. "The process of Cuba's integration into the entire Inter-American Community must begin," Uribe said at an economic forum in Madrid.

The Colombian president arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a two-day working visit, during which he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos and entrepreneurs.

Bogota - At least eight miners died and four others were injured in the collapse of a gold mine in northwest Colombia, officials said Tuesday.

Victor Tamayo, governor of Choco province, said the mine was located in a remote, jungle region about four hours from the nearest city.

In a separate incident in the same province, the Attorney General's office confiscated 24 dredges used in illegal gold-mining operations without permits that caused environmental degradation.

Bogota - Leftist rebels in Colombia said Thursday they will soon release the hostage they have been holding longest, a soldier kidnapped more than 11 years ago.

Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on December 21, 1997 in an attack on an army communications base on Mount Patascoy.

The rebels seized several members of the military during the raid in the south-west region of Narino, but only Moncayo and Jose Libio Martinez remain in captivity.

Bogota  - Colombian police arrested Wednesday Daniel Rendon, known with the alias "Don Mario," the boss of a paramilitary gang devoted to drug trafficking.

Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, press secretary at the government palace in Bogota, said that the man - one of the most sought after suspects in Colombia - was arrested in the town of Apartado, in the northwestern region of Antioquia.