Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Thursday that he hopes the country's rebels will release "700 kidnapped people" they held as hostages.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group, had handed over two woman hostages to an international humanitarian mission, Santos said at the Defense Ministry.
FARC is still believed to hold more than 700 hostages, he said.
Santos added that the Colombian government is willing to facilitate the release of more hostages by suspending military operations against the rebels.
Earlier, FARC handed Clara Rojas and former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez over to a Venezuelan-led international mission in a jungle in southern Colombia.
The two women arrived at the Santo Domingo airport in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, where they were transferred to Venezuela's capital Caracas to meet their families after almost six years in captivity.
FARC, which is asking for ransom for the majority of its captives, has said 44 hostages are "political prisoners" and offered to swap them for hundreds of jailed rebels.
The 44 are 14 soldiers, 19 police officers, seven politicians, a state governor and three U.S. defense contractors.
Source:Xinhua
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