Leader of Colombia's paramilitary group shot dead

Miguel Arroyave, chief of a faction of the paramilitary Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), has been killed in an ambush in the country's central-south province of Meta, authorities said Monday.

Bodies of Arroyave and his four bodyguards were found near the rural town of Puerto Lleras, some 170 km south of Bogota, the authorities said, adding that they might be killed by fellow members of the AUC.

Arroyave, who commanded AUC's largest faction with 5,000 members, was one of the 10 AUC leaders participating in the peace talks with the government before the ambush and he had announced the demobilization of his members based in the provinces of Meta, Arauca and Cundinamarca.

The peace talks are central to President Alvaro Uribe's plans to disband the 20,000- member paramilitary group by 2005, as a step to end the 40-year-old civil war in which leftist rebels, far-right paramilitaries and governmental troops have fought one another, with an average of 3,500 people killed every year.

The peace talks were held in a protected zone in northern Colombia and Arroyave returned to Meta Sunday to discuss with his men on peace-related matters.