A Colombian rebel group has announced plans to release seven foreign hostages, it emerged today.
A Catholic Church mediator said that the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, would release the tourists one-by one-next week - if certain conditions were met.
The left-wing group wants a UN representative, Catholic Church mediators and an imprisoned ELN leader - Francisco Galan - present for the hand-over, according to Monsignor Alberto Giraldo, who has been negotiating with the rebels for weeks.
The ELN kidnapped at gunpoint two Britons, four Israelis, a German and a Spaniard from ancient jungle ruins on September 12th. But 19-year-old Mr Matthew Scott, from Clapham, south London, escaped after ten days by hurling himself down a precipice.
Monsignor Giraldo told reporters last night the group wanted to free the Spanish man first next week because he was from the Basque autonomous region of Spain.
In exchange for freeing the captives, Monsignor Giraldo said a humanitarian commission would visit the Sierra Nevada mountains where the hostages were taken to look at the plight of poor villagers.
In a communiqué issued two weeks after the kidnapping, the ELN claimed it seized the tourists to raise awareness about what it described as the suffering of the mainly Indian inhabitants of the region because of the actions of right-wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian army.