Bogota, Colombia ? Microsoft Corp. has agreed to donate more than $300,000 to open computer centers where former paramilitary fighters will receive free training for civilian jobs, the government said Thursday.

The announcement follows a meeting last month in New York in which President Alvaro Uribe solicited Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ help in reintegrating 30,000 demobilized paramilitaries into the nation’s economy.

Frank Pearl, Uribe’s new special envoy in charge of generating private-sector employment for the ex-combatants, said eight training centers in former paramilitary strongholds would be opened within three years, offering free job training to more than 2,000 ex-combatants.

The contribution from the Redmond, Wash.-based software company also will be used to develop a employment database to track the career ambitions of the former fighters and match their skills with the needs of employers.