(Adds French reaction, FARC statement, background) By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Colombia's president, upset over a bombing he blamed on leftist rebels, broke off efforts on Friday to organize a prisoner swap and ordered the military to rescue hostages held by guerrillas in secret jungle camps. Families of the hostages condemned the move by President Alvaro Uribe as dangerous. Among the 62 hostages who were to be exchanged for rebels held in government jails are three American defense contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Uribe's decision followed a car bombing in Bogota on Thursday that the government says was carried out by the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, or FARC, which denied involvement. "The only path that remains is a military rescue," a visibly angry Uribe told reporters, saying the government had intercepted a communication from a rebel leader proving the FARC planted the bomb, which injured 10 people in the parking lot of Bogota's Military University. "We cannot continue the farce of a humanitarian exchange (of prisoners) with the FARC," he said. The FARC issued a statement on its Web site speculating the bomb was planted by the United States in an attempt to kill the possibility of ending Colombia's four-decade-old guerrilla war, in which thousands are killed every year. Uribe's decision came less than a month after he said he was willing to discuss a FARC proposal to withdraw government troops from a rural area almost the size of New York City to negotiate the exchange. The rebels kidnapped French-Colombian citizen Betancourt during her 2002 presidential campaign and Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell during a 2003 mission to locate crops used to make cocaine. CALL FOR RENEWED DIALOGUE Mariana Howes, wife of Howes, called Uribe's idea of a military rescue "crazy." "He's going to get my husband killed," she told Reuters. The rebels executed a group of hostages, including a former defense minister, during a botched military rescue in 2003. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy issued a statement calling for renewed dialogue, saying his country was against "any use of force to rescue the hostages." "At a time when everyone was optimistic due to the recent statements by the Colombian president and the FARC, I remain convinced that only a peaceful solution is possible," the statement said. Colombia's cities have become safer under Uribe, who is popular for his U.S.-backed crackdown on the FARC. But the guerrillas still control wide rural areas, funding their operations with this Andean country's multibillion-dollar cocaine industry. Uribe has started talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and disbanded right-wing paramilitaries while peace with the 17,000-strong FARC remains elusive. Colombian peace negotiators entered a fourth round of exploratory talks in Havana with the ELN on Friday. They hoped to draw up an agenda for negotiations after a year of confidence-building meetings hosted by Communist Cuba, which inspired the ELN rebellion in 1964. (Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana)
