20/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the ANNCOL press agency (close to the guerrillas) announced that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had called on the EU to remove it from the list of terrorist groups, in an effort “to achieve peace”. In a letter to Matti Vanhanen, president of the European Council, the FARC 2nd in command, Raul Reyes, claimed that “the best way to help the Colombian peace process is to recognise the two parties in the conflict”. The decision taken in June 2002 by the EU foreign affairs ministers to include the FARC on the list of terrorist organisations was described in the letter as being a “lamentable error”. The rebel leader said “We are stressing the interest that certain EU countries have in helping find solutions for an exchange of prisoners, which has been systematically torpedoed by the Alvaro Uribe” (the Colombian president). FARC recently called for the release of 500 prisoners in exchange for 59 military and political figures, including three Americans and the Franco-Colombia Ingrid Betancourt, the former Greens candidate for the Colombian presidency, kidnapped on 23 February 2002.