BOGOTA: Colombia on Sunday rejected an offer for talks with the country`s most powerful guerrilla group, saying there could never be dialogue with rebels engaged in "terrorism."

"Colombia will never talk with terrorists, that is a lesson we have already learned," said Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera in an interview with the daily El Espectador de Bogota.

"There is no dialogue with those who turn to terrorism," Rivera said.

In a videotaped message released a week before President Juan Manuel Santos took office on August 7, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Alfonso Cano offered to open peace talks with the new government.

In a separate interview with RCN radio network, Rivera said that government forces knew where Cano is hiding. He is "fleeing from the security forces. He has no rest... we are not going to let up," Rivera said.

After taking office Santos said he would not close the door to talks, but they would have to be "based on the unalterable premise that (the guerrillas) give up arms, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, and intimidation."

The FARC has an estimated 8,000 fighters. Another leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, is believed to have some 2,000 combatants.

A car bomb exploded in Bogota on Thursday, wounding seven people and damaging hundreds of buildings. As of Sunday however the government was unwilling to assign blame for the blast.

Colombia has been beset for years by violence involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary death squads, and powerful drug cartels.

Santos said on Friday that he did not believe the conditions were ripe for talks with the guerrillas, and ordered Rivera to press ahead with an offensive against them.

As defense minister, Rivera is in charge of both the armed forces and the national police.

BDST: 1130 HRS, August 16, 2010