Summary The Colombian conflict has killed 220,000 people and uprooted more than five million.
HAVANA (AFP) - Colombia s government and Marxist FARC rebels announced Saturday they had reached a deal on demining, a stride forward on a key issue to negotiate peace after decades of conflict.
"The government and the FARC have agreed to ask (Norwegian People s Aid) to lead and coordinate a cleanup and decontamination operation: for mines in rural areas as part of the armed conflict," a statement from the parties said, read out by Cuban diplomat Rodolfo Benitez.
Lead government negotiator Humberto de al Calle, a former vice president stressed that "our goal is to put an end to the conflict... so the demining proposal is a first step, but a giant one toward peace."
The Colombian conflict has killed 220,000 people and uprooted more than five million since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was launched in 1964.
The peace talks have produced partial accords on several issues, but have yet to yield a final deal.
The FARC declared an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire on December 20, but President Juan Manuel Santos has rejected a bilateral ceasefire without a definitive peace deal.
Cuba and Norway are guarantors of the Colombian peace process under way in Havana.
