CARACAS (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe to work with him for the release of 45 hostages held by Colombia's largest armed rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Speaking on his weekly radio and television show Alo Presidente, Chavez said that a meeting planned with FARC representatives in Caracas had been suspended due to security concerns.
Chavez called on Uribe to provide a private plane to sent FARC chief Pedro Antonio Marin, who is better known by his alias Manuel Marulanda, to travel to Venezuela for the meeting.
Chavez criticized Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who publicly said last week that FARC leaders must pay for their own travel and that it would be at their own risk because Colombian government forces would do all they could to catch them.
""I know there are people in Colombia who want to knock this game on the head, but I also know that both Uribe and the FARC want an agreement, and I want to help them,"" Chavez said.
The show also detailed a report sent by left-wing Colombian legislator Piedad Cordoba, Uribe's special envoy to the FARC.
Cordoba said she was pleased with Chavez's work in support of a humanitarian accord to swap FARC hostages for jailed members of the rebel group. Chavez has been playing a role in the process since August.
She added that human rights organizations were preparing to give concerts in the capitals of France, the United States, Colombia, Brazil and the Dominican Republic to raise awareness about the issue.
Colombia has been locked in a civil conflict since the mid-1960s, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces fight leftist guerrillas. The conflict kills an average of 3,000 people each year.
Colombians hope the humanitarian accord, if achieved, will be the first step toward the end to the conflict between the FARC and the government.