Kidnapped UN official to be freed, Colombia general says

A UN official kidnapped in Colombia, allegedly by a renegade faction of FARC rebel, is just hours from being freed, military leaders here said on Friday.

The official with the UN Office on Crime and Drugs was kidnapped Wednesday in the southeastern department of Guaviare while on a tour to promote replacing coca with legal crops, according to the United Nations.

Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas told reporters Friday that a military delegation dispatched to the southeastern region where the abduction occurred has worked out the terms of UN official's release with his captors.

Authorities did not identify the UN worker, other than to say that he was a Colombian national.

A landmark peace deal signed in November between the leftwing rebels and the government calls for the FARC to transition its 7,000 fighters to civilian life.

But a rump group of some 300 FARC holdouts have refused to lay down their arms and still maintain links to drug trafficking.