Colombian military on high alert

The Colombian military has made preparations to retake a rebel safe haven after President Andres Pastrana said the rebels had broken off peace talks and gave them 48 hours to leave the region.

Some feared a failure of the peace talks would lead to a bloodier phase in Colombia’s 38 year civil war. But a grave Pastrana said now is the time ‘‘for a cool head and lots of calm’’.

‘‘We can’t fall into exaggerated alarmism or unnecessary panic,’’ he said in a national address. ‘‘We won’t enter into a terrible, merciless war.’’

Hours before Pastrana’s announcement, rebel spokesman Raul Reyes had said he hoped talks would continue until at least January 20, when the safe haven was due to expire.

The army began moving troops before Pastrana’s announcement. More than a dozen tanks and 10 trucks carrying soldiers were seen in the capital, Bogota, heading to a base in the south of the city, closer to the rebel safe haven.

Troops throughout the country were on high alert, an army spokesman said.

Pastrana blamed the collapse of talks on the intransigence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.

‘‘Today I have to tell Colombians, with regret, but above all with realism and responsibility, that the Farc keeps placing obstacles in front of the peace process, making it impossible for us to keep advancing with the process,’’ he said.

‘‘The Farc has 48 hours, as agreed, to retire from the zone,’’ he added, referring to the original timetable for them to abandon the safe haven if talks failed.

Though he did not specify what could resurrect the peace talks, Pastrana said ‘‘this is not final.’’

‘‘I will keep the doors to dialogue and negotiation open because I remain convinced that this is the best way out of the internal conflict that our country is suffering from,’’ he added.

Pastrana ceded the safe haven to the Farc three years ago in an effort to jump start talks. The zone - the size of Switzerland - has been the site of sporadic negotiations, and the president has renewed it several times.

But he said the rebels had refused to discuss a ceasefire.

The presidential peace negotiator, Camilo Gomez, said Farc had withdrawn from the process, but the rebel spokesman accused him of lying.

‘‘He lied to the country and the international community when he said the Farc had asked for 48 hours for the armed forces to enter the zone after not coming to an agreement,’’ Reyes said.

Roughly 3,500 people are killed every year in Colombia’s civil war, which pits the Farc and a smaller rebel group against government forces and an illegal right-wing paramilitary group.