Gates discusses hostages deal

BOGOTA, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates discussed a humanitarian agreement with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Thursday in Colombia for three American hostages.

Gates met with President Uribe to discuss the situation over of three American hostages, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes, who are being held by guerilla fighters -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

FARC operates in Colombia's underdeveloped regions.

All three men are U.S. government contract employees who officials say were kidnapped more than four years ago when their airplane crashed in the jungle.

Officials say Gates, who is on a five-day, five-country trip to Latin America, discussed the possibility of a humanitarian agreement between the FARC and the Colombian government.

“I think we had a good conversation," Gates said in a statement. "I know that Colombia is doing everything in its power to secure the release of the hostages and anything we can do to help this process we would be happy to contribute."

Additional, officials say Uribe and Gates discussed the potential of an exchange of two FARC leaders currently being held in U.S. custody.

“The president and I had a discussion about how counterproductive it is to release convicted criminals in exchange for hostages. And I cited a couple of examples from Afghanistan about how that can be a vicious cycle,” Gates said.