CARACAS, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with a FARC guerrilla from Colombia on Wednesday in a landmark meeting between the rebels and a head of state designed to break deadlocked talks over freeing hostages. After a hours-long meeting, which took weeks to organize, the leftist anti-U.S. president said hostage negotiations would be difficult. "Today, I met for several hours with an envoy of (FARC leader) Manuel Marulanda. It was the first meeting. There will be others as we look for a solution. But it is not easy," Chavez said. Earlier on Wednesday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called for patience to give his counterpart in neighboring Venezuela time to break an impasse with Latin America's oldest insurgency. Any meeting between a head of state and the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, helps give international recognition to a group labeled terrorists by governments around the world, political analysts say. Chavez, who has frayed relations with the United States and cool ties with some other Western governments, is also likely to boost his international profile through the mediation. The FARC wants rebel prisoners freed in exchange for the most high-profile hostages, held for years in jungle camps, including a French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. contract workers. Chavez, South America's leading leftist voice, has credibility with the rebels, but it is unclear if he can overcome obstacles to the accord such as Uribe's refusal to meet the FARC demand for a demilitarized area. (Reporting by Saul Hudson)
