BOGOTA (Reuters) -- Colombian authorities are offering up to $2.7 million in bounty for the body of the founder and chief commander of the FARC rebels, who died after 40 years fighting the state, a top army official said on Tuesday.

FARC chief Manuel ""Sureshot"" Marulanda died of a heart attack in March four decades after he formed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, Latin America's oldest insurgency, the rebels said on Sunday.
His death was a heavy blow to the FARC, which has already been weakened by the deaths of several top commanders over the last year in military strikes under President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security crackdown.
""Without a doubt this has become a objective for us,"" said Army chief Gen. Mario Montoya. ""It will be important for us to carry out identification of this body.""
Under Uribe's government, the rebels have been steadily weakened and driven back to remoter parts of the country and violence has dropped sharply. But the rebels are still a capable force in areas where state presence is weak.
A FARC commander on Sunday acknowledged Marulanda died after an illness. But military officials do not dismiss the possibility he was wounded in bombardments around that time on the southern jungles where he was believed to be hiding.
The United States and European Union label the FARC a cocaine-trafficking terrorist group. But the rebels are still holding scores of hostages kept for years in jungle camps, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.
Marulanda's story personifies the political violence that has plagued Colombia since the late 1940s. A farmer's son born in the small southwestern coffee town of Genova, Marulanda took up arms in 1949 after Conservative Party henchmen began slaughtering supporters of the peasant-backed Liberal Party.
When other Liberal guerrillas disarmed in 1953, Marulanda joined up with communist outlaws.
Marulanda turned a group of 48 armed farmers in southern Colombia into a thousands-strong organization which has fought the government and right-wing paramilitaries in a civil war that has claimed more than 200,000 lives.
Uribe said on Saturday he had received ""calls from the FARC in which some of the leaders announced their decision to leave the FARC and hand over Betancourt if their freedom is guaranteed.
""The government's answer is 'yes, they are guaranteed freedom'"" if they handed over hostages, Uribe said.
In a speech carried live on national television, Uribe said those leaders of the FARC who free the captives could be turned over to authorities from ""France, so that they enjoy that freedom there.""
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Sunday called Uribe's comments ""very good news"" but expressed concern that Bogota may be preparing to launch an army assault on rebel territory.
In Paris, Betancourt's mother and sister immediately launched a fresh appeal for her release, calling on the new FARC leader to make history.
Such a release would ""trigger decisive action from France and the international community to reach a humanitarian accord and put Colombia on the path of peace"", their statement said.
Pictures released in November showed her looking frail and the French government has warned that she may be gravely ill.