Colombia rebels: No more talks with Pastrana

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The National Liberation Army, Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group, said in a written statement Wednesday that it will not engage in any further talks with President Andres Pastrana.

The announcement comes a day after Pastrana said he was suspending talks with the leftist group, known as ELN. He said the group has no desire for peace.

The ELN statement said the group will wait for Pastrana's successor next year before any resumption of talks.

The two sides had been laying out ground rules for full-blown peace negotiations.

Both had agreed to hold the peace talks in a demilitarized zone to be established in northern Colombia. But in talks in Venezuela, the government said it would prefer the talks to be outside Colombia, contending it is impossible to create the demilitarized zone because paramilitary units have moved into the area.

The government's peace process with the largest rebel group, the 16,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), continues.

One of the issues is the release of about 500 military prisoners being held by the FARC.

The FARC says it wants to deal with social and economic inequalities through agrarian reform. It would like to share power with the government to implement needed social change and to do away with institutional corruption.

In June, FARC released 43 soldiers and policemen after the government freed 11 guerrillas from prison.

The swap was seen as the most significant accomplishment to emerge from more than two years of peace negotiations aimed at ending the 37-year civil conflict. Both sides have said other agreements -- including a cease-fire to end fighting that kills thousands every year -- would follow.