Colombia opens peace talks with ELN rebels

Colombia opened peace talks on Tuesday with its last active rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), seeking to end a 53-year conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people.

The negotiations mark a new milestone in the Colombian peace process, after President Juan Manuel Santos's government sealed a historic accord with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in November.

The government and the ELN are now seeking to bring "complete peace" to Colombia, the representative for host country Ecuador, Juan Meriguet, said.

The negotiations were launched at a ceremony in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, where the talks will be held.

"We have before us the opportunity to finally turn the page on this war," the government's chief negotiator, Juan Camilo Restrepo, said.

But experts warn the ELN will be a tougher negotiating partner than the FARC.

Restrepo warned the rebels that if they fail to give up kidnapping, "it will be very difficult to advance."

The chief ELN negotiator, Pablo Beltran, urged both sides to rally around the points that united them and leave aside their differences. He called on the government to "take responsibility" for its actions during the conflict, saying the rebels were prepared to do the same.

Restrepo added that he expected to draw from the lessons of the negotiations with the FARC to reach a peace accord with the ELN.

November's landmark peace accord with the FARC, the oldest and largest rebel group, left the ELN as the last active guerrilla insurgency.

It has an estimated 1,500 fighters, mostly in the north and west.