Colombia's President hits back at rebels

President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, whose inauguration ceremony was attacked by guerrillas with mortar bombs, killing at least 17 people, toured two of the country's worst war zones yesterday.

Speaking amid tight security in Valledupar, a provincial capital, he said he would make the country's roads safe from rebel attacks and kidnappings. Every year at least 3,500 people are killed in conflict and 3,000 are kidnapped.

Police blamed the attack at the parliament in Bogota on Wednesday on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) after intercepting incriminating radio messages, and have detained 20 suspects. Sixty-nine people were injured in the attack, most of them vagrants in a decaying district near the parliament complex.

Investigators discovered a launching pad for crude missiles and 98 home-made grenades in a house that had been rented two months ago half a mile from parliament.

At least one of the largest gas cylinder mortar bombs appears to have badly misfired, landing in slums five blocks from the government buildings, killing 11 residents. Reports said some were in a crackhouse, watching the inauguration on television.

Mr Uribe won power with a promise to take a hard line against the guerrillas, and Farc has put him on notice that it is up to the fight.