Talks resumed after a brief hiatus Wednesday in Havana between Colombia and FARC guerrillas, one day after President Juan Manuel Santos said the rebels must disarm in order to reach a peace agreement.

The talks, held in the Cuban capital Havana, are the first attempt in a decade to negotiate a truce between the Colombian government and Latin American's oldest insurgency. Three previous attempts failed.

"Today we resume talks with a greater desire to make progress ... and we trust the government delegation will come with the same will and disposition," said Pablo Catatumbo, a member of the FARC negotiating team.

On Tuesday, Santos urged the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to "exchange bullets for votes," and warned: "This means surrendering weapons."

He said there was "not the slightest possibility of reaching an overall agreement without taking that step."

Santos also said that talks should not drag on beyond November.

During the 12-day recess after the last round of talks, fighting continued in Colombia. A member of the FARC leadership, Leonidas Zambrano Cardozo, also known as "Caliche," was killed in a clash with soldiers in southwest Colombia on May 4.

The last attempt at a settlement collapsed in 2002 when the rebels regrouped and rearmed in a Switzerland-sized demilitarized zone that had been set aside as an encouragement for peace.

This time Santos rejected a rebel proposal for a cease fire, though the FARC nevertheless held a unilateral cease fire for two months when talks began in late 2012.

The FARC, with some 8,000 fighters, emerged in the 1960s in response to a yawning wealth gap between Colombian peasants and wealthy owners of huge haciendas, or estates.

The current round of talks is scheduled to go to May 25.