CARACAS (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday ties with Colombia had been damaged by his abrupt firing this week as a mediator in hostage talks with rebels in the South American neighbor.

""The trust has gone and that's serious for bilateral relations and it certainly will affect ties with Colombia, I have no doubt about that,"" Chavez told state television.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ended Chavez's role on Wednesday in a late-night statement accusing the talkative Venezuelan of breaking an accord between the two by speaking directly to one of his generals about the hostages.
For months, Chavez had sought to persuade Marxist FARC rebels to release dozens of hostages, including a French-Colombian politician, Ingrid Betancourt, and three U.S. defense contractors held for years in secret jungle camps.
Despite little progress, Chavez had won international praise for his work, particularly from France.
Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo did not refer to Chavez's comments, but said on Saturday the government would keep up efforts to free hostages.
""We should not fall for the tricks of terrorists. President Alvaro Uribe reiterates his willingness to keep open a constructive dialogue with President Hugo Chavez,"" he said.
The Venezuelan leader is also embroiled in a diplomatic spat with Spain, threatening to review all ties after the king told him to ""shut up"" at a summit where Chavez repeatedly called a former prime minister a fascist.
On Thursday, Chavez said he disagreed with Uribe and complained the Colombian leader had not consulted him before announcing the move. But he also accepted the decision and even offered to try again should Uribe change his mind.
Then live on a television program that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, Chavez made clear the disagreement rose to the level of a bilateral dispute.
""I feel betrayed. I feel that my good faith was betrayed,"" he said, calling it absurd that Uribe did not call him first.
He had drawn Colombian complaints during the mediation by revealing negotiating positions at public events.
Chavez hosted rebels, including at his presidential palace, but failed to secure a meeting with FARC leader Manuel Marulanda or receive from the guerrillas proof that the hostages are alive in what would have been a goodwill gesture.
Last week, he hoped to show French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Betancourt was alive but he went to Paris empty-handed.
On Saturday, a Colombian senator who helped Chavez contact the rebels said she gave him a video showing one captive police officer was still alive in an apparent sign the Venezuelan's work had been making progress.
The evidence came in the form of a videotaped interview with police captain Guillermo Solarzano, held by leftist rebels since June 4, 2007, carried out recently by a journalist from the Chavez-backed channel Telesur, senator Piedad Cordoba told AFP.
""At this moment I am traveling to Caracas to deliver the video to president Chavez,"" said Cordoba, who until this week had been acting as a go-between along with Chavez in a possible swap of rebel-held hostages for rebels in Colombian prisons.
But the chief of Colombia's police cast doubt on the announcement, saying authorities would investigate the circumstances of the report and the journalist's relations with the Marxist rebels.
""Tell my family not to lose hope,"" Solarzano reportedly said in the video, which lasts a little more than a half hour.
The police officer said he tried to escape his captors on July 9 but got lost in the woods and was recaptured by the rebels.
He also said that a swap of hostages for prisoners was the best way to secure his freedom and the other hostages held by the FARC rebels.
But Colombian police chief Oscar Naranjo accused the Telesur journalist, William Parra, of manipulating the story in an attempt to show Chavez's recent mediation effort produced results.
Naranjo alleged he was ""sure that Parra has manipulated this information.""
An investigation would look at the veracity of Parra's report and his relationship with the FARC, Naranjo said.