BOGOTA, Jan. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 12 guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and three government soldiers were killed on Friday in battles in the central Colombian municipality of Meta, army officials told local radio.

    The fighting took place in the Vista Hermosa mountains, some 200 km southeast of Bogota, where an FARC faction attacked an army camp and killed 29 soldiers last week.

    Last week's battle was the largest single death toll in more than three years. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe responded to the killing by promising to retake the coca-growing areas of Meta from "terrorists involved in the narcotics trade."

    Thousands die each year and tens of thousands are displaced in Colombia, where three rebel groups have been fighting over coca-growing land for decades. Right-wing group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) was formed in the 1980s, but the two left-wing forces The National Liberation Army (ELN) and the FARC have been fighting the government since the mid-1960s. Enditem