The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has accused the Colombian government of not doing enough to halt violence by the country's right-wing paramilitary groups.

Speaking after a meeting with the Colombian president, Andres Pastrana, in Bogota, Mrs Robinson said more needed to be done to bring the paramilitaries to justice.

She also sharply criticised the country's largest left-wing rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC for what she described as their deplorable campaign of kidnapping.

She urged the guerrillas to respect binding international humanitarian law.

So far this year, an estimated fifteen-hundred civilians have been killed in attacks attributed mainly to Colombia's paramilitaries. Hundreds of others have been kidnapped by the rebels for ransom as a means of financing their insurgency.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service