Spain, Brazil and Venezuela will mediate in the peace talks between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the rebel group said in a statement on Monday.

The ELN's military chief, Antonio Garcia, said the three countries will send their ambassadors to Colombia to a meeting in the coming days with Francisco Galan, a jailed leader of the ELN.

Garcia also blamed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for violating the confidentiality of the talks between the ELN and the government.

The ELN, with 4,500 combatants, is Colombia's second biggest anti-government organization behind the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The country has been locked in a four-decade civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another. The conflicts kill more than 3,000 people every year.

Source: Xinhua