Colombia ? The government transferred jailed leftist rebels to a holding center Friday as part of President Alvaro Uribe’s bid to win freedom for 60 rebel-held hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

“This is advancing the national government’s goal of freeing all the kidnapped people who are in the power of illegal armed groups,” Uribe’s office said in a statement. The government hopes its “humanitarian gesture” will prompt an in-kind response from the guerrillas.

Uribe said the prisoners must demobilize, promise not to return to crime and be under the supervision of a foreign government or the Catholic Church to qualify for release on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the national penitentiary institute said about 190 rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, would be moved from various prisons to a center in Boyaca province where they will be held while their release applications are reviewed.