BOGOTA, June 8 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
on Friday welcomed Group of Eight nations' support for his
initiative to free hostages held by left-wing rebels, but a
guerrilla leader he released from prison to try to negotiate a
deal warned that any agreement remained elusive.

Uribe's move to free guerrilla commander Rodrigo Granda and
around 150 others has fueled hopes of families a deal could be
close with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
to swap jailed guerrillas for kidnap victims held for years in
Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency.

Granda was released on Monday after French President
Nicolas Sarkozy asked Uribe to free him to help set up a deal
over hostages including French-Colombian politician Ingrid
Betancourt, kidnapped in 2002, and three Americans held in
secret jungle camps by the FARC since 2003.

Uribe spoke in Washington where he was trying to persuade
wary Democrats in the U.S. Congress to approve a free trade
agreement and extend a multimillion-dollar military and
counter-narcotics aid package.

"The G8 have understood the dimension of our humanitarian
gesture," Uribe said.

In a statement at the end of their meeting in Germany, the
world's industrialized nations recognized Uribe's measure as a
positive step.

But in Bogota, Granda warned that a hostage deal was still
far off because the FARC leadership had yet to approve his role
as negotiator and he had not reached any accord with the
Colombian or French governments.

"I am not going to create a miracle. I ask the relatives,
the mothers of those held by the FARC, not to deceive
themselves, and to have patience," Granda told reporters before
flashing a victory sign and shouting "Long live the FARC."

Granda, who is known as the FARC's "foreign minister," said
he did not know why Sarkozy had asked Uribe to free him. He is
staying at the Roman Catholic Church episcopal conference in
Bogota while the details of his possible role are decided.

He was captured in Venezuela in 2004 by undercover police
agents who whisked him across the frontier to Colombia in an
incident that sparked a diplomatic row between the nations.

The FARC insists that Uribe temporarily demilitarize an
area the size of New York City to launch talks over the release
of politicians, police and soldiers held for as long as nine
years. Granda repeated the hostages could be freed if a safe
haven was granted, but Uribe rejects that as unacceptable.

Betancourt, who has dual French and Colombian nationality,
was captured while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.
The three U.S. Defense Department contractors -- Marc
Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes -- were snatched
after their aircraft crashed on an anti-drug mission.