Chavez confirms he will work for release of US hostages

In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, left, shakes hands with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez before a meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Saturday, April 26, 2008. Richardson turned to President Chavez for help in pressing for the release of three Americans held hostage by Colombian rebels. Three U.S. defense contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, have been held by the FARC rebels since their plane went down in rebel-held jungles in February 2003. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Solorzano/Miraflores Press Office)

CARACAS, Venezuela—President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he will try to facilitate the release of three Americans held captive by Colombia's largest rebel group -- even though he has lost contact with the guerrillas.

Chavez confirmed his willingness to help a day after New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said the socialist leader had agreed to mediate a possible exchange of the U.S. defense contractors for imprisoned guerrillas.

"I told him that we're at their service, to try to help even though the issue is very complicated," said Chavez, speaking during his weekly television and radio program.

Chavez helped pave the way for the release of six captives earlier this year. But on Sunday, he reiterated previous claims that his government has lost contact with leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Prior to his meeting with Richardson at the presidential palace on Saturday, Chavez remarked that he did not know "if I'm going to be able to continue helping."

Richardson said that he plans to put forward a proposal for the release of Marc Gonsalves, 35, Thomas Howes, 54, and Keith Stansell, 44, in the coming weeks, but he did not divulge any specifics on how they plan to move forward.

The Democratic governor, who has helped facilitate the release of U.S. hostages in North Korea, Iraq and Sudan, traveled to Venezuela on behalf of the hostages' families -- not as an official U.S. envoy. Both Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe have agreed to cooperate, he said.

FARC leader Ivan Marquez said that last month's assassination of rebel commander Raul Reyes during a Colombian military raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador has closed any possibility of new negotiations. Marquez's comments were posted Saturday on the Web site of the Argentine daily newspaper Perfil.