A clash between Colombian army and rebel forces left five combatants dead, the army said in a statement Friday, marking the latest fighting despite ongoing peace talks between the two sides.

The battle Thursday in northern Antioquia department left three army soldiers dead and three wounded.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has accused Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe of plotting his assassination with sectors of the right wing he says are seeking his overthrow.

Uribe, responding on his Twitter account, dismissed the charges as "immature."

A suspected top member of the Calabrian mafia who was one of Italy's most wanted fugitives has been arrested in Colombia, the international police agency Interpol announced on Friday.

Domenico Trimboli, 58, is suspected of being a leading figure in the 'Ndrangheta criminal network, which is a major player in the international cocaine trafficking business.

Five FARC militants, a policeman and a soldier were killed in recent days, authorities said Monday as peace talks aimed at ending the long-running conflict were set to resume.

In the southern Caqueta department, five militants from the leftist FARC rebel group were killed and a soldier wounded in fighting in a rural area, the army operational chief there said.

Colombian rebels on Friday freed two Germans whom they had taken hostage in November, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The two men were turned over by National Liberation Army guerrillas in a rural area of northeast Colombia to a delegation that included Red Cross members, the ICRC said in a statement.

Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the leftist FARC, on Friday released two police officers they had held for three weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The ICRC also said a smaller leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), had separately released five employees of a Canadian mining company kidnapped last month.

At least seven soldiers were killed Wednesday in clashes with suspected FARC guerrillas in southern Colombia, in some of the worst fighting since peace talks resumed between the government and the rebels.

The army said five soldiers were injured in the attack, adding that it launched the assault on FARC-controlled territory in San Antonio de Getucha, in Caqueta province.

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook southern Colombia Saturday, causing some damage to houses but no casualties or major mishaps, authorities said.

The quake was felt as far away as Quito, Ecuador and Bogota, where buildings swayed under the force of the tremor.

Colombia's leftist FARC guerrillas on Wednesday called for the decriminalization of the cultivation of marijuana, coca leaf and poppies in the country.

The rebel group, which allegedly finances its operations in part through drug trafficking, said some cultivation of these crops should be legalized for "therapeutic or medicinal uses, industrial uses or for cultural reasons."

Spanish police said Wednesday they have seized 4.1 tonnes of cocaine worth nearly a quarter of a billion euros in one of the biggest ever seizures of the drug in the country.

The cocaine was found at a warehouse in the eastern city of Elche hidden in containers of cow hides that were brought from Colombia by boat and were to be delivered to a shoe maker, police said in a statement.