Colombian leftist guerrillas on Thursday freed the last two of three German men whose kidnappings in July strained fragile peace talks, a Red Cross spokesman said. 
Ulrich Kuenzel and Reiner Bruchmann, who were kidnapped together with Kuenzel's brother, Thomas, were released unharmed by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and handed over to a Red Cross mission in a mountainous area in the southern province of Cauca, spokesman Carlos Rios told Reuters. 
"They are in fine shape under the circumstances. They were treated well," an official at the German Embassy in Bogota said. 
The release by the FARC, which bankrolls its war on the state with ransom payments from hundreds of kidnappings each year, took place east of the city of Popayan, 240 miles (380 km) southwest of the capital Bogota, the official said . 
Thomas Kuenzel escaped from his captors in a rural district of Cauca Province on September 22 as he took advantage of disarray caused by a military offensive. 
FARC rebels kidnapped the three on July 18 as they were touring rural aid projects in indigenous communities in Cauca. 
European Union countries had said they would end their assistance to peace talks between the government and the FARC until the rebels freed the men. 
The 17,000-member FARC said it wanted to investigate whether the men's work for a German government aid agency was a cover for the U.S.-backed "Plan Colombia" anti-cocaine offensive, which targets cocaine production in rebel-held jungles in the south. 
The FARC is the largest rebel force fighting in the South American nation's 37-year-old war, which has killed 40,000 people in the past decade alone. 
European countries, which have criticized Washington's $1 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia, are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in social and development programs in the country. 
They have also participated in 3-year-old peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government, which the United States has boycotted since February 1999, when rebels killed three U.S. Indian activists. 
Colombia's Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez de Soto welcomed Thursday's liberation, saying it "opened a new space for international cooperation as required by the international community and the government." 
Peace talks, which began in January 1999, have failed to end the bloodshed. 
Rebels and common criminals together kidnapped almost 4,000 people in Colombia last year, giving the country by far the world's highest kidnapping rate. 
Last week, the FARC -- a 1960s peasant army that says it is fighting for socialist revolution -- announced it would end its mass roadside kidnappings as part of a deal with the government to rescue the peace negotiations. 
The military accused the FARC on Tuesday of breaking its latest pledge, saying it abducted six motorists, including two policeman, over the weekend. 
A FARC commander said the policemen had been "executed" after rebels alleged they were members of right-wing militias. 
Copyright 2001 Reuters . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.