Factbox - Colombia's peace process with Marxist FARC rebels

(Reuters) - Colombia's peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels have been in crisis after the armed group took five hostages over the last two seeks, including an army general. Two soldiers were released on Tuesday, but the government says talks will not resume until all five are freed. The following are some key facts about the two-year-old talks in Havana: THE REBELS The FARC, founded in 1964 to fight for rural land reform but now heavily involved in the narcotics trade, has about 8,000 fighters, down from a peak of 15,000 in the late 1990s. The rebels have held thousands of hostages over the years but have now stopped kidnapping for ransom. They maintain that military personnel are fair targets in the absence of a cease-fire. Many of the rebel leaders are now at the negotiating table. Arrest warrants against them were suspended so they could journey to Havana for the talks. The leaders in Havana have occasionally dissociated themselves from violent attacks by lower ranks back in Colombia, raising the possibility of a rift within the group. THE GOVERNMENT The peace talks are the centrepiece of President Juan Manuel Santos' plan for the country, which has enjoyed steady economic growth in recent years. He won a second four-year term in June on the back of his promises to end the war. Santos has publicly warned the FARC it risked jeopardizing the peace process with abductions of military personnel and continued attacks on infrastructure, including oil pipelines. The country's opposition, led by hard-line former President and current Senator Alvaro Uribe, has slammed the talks as a way for rebel leaders to gain impunity for crimes against humanity, a charge Santos denies. AT THE TABLE The negotiators have so far reached partial accords on three on the five topics on the agenda: political participation for demobilized rebels, land reform and an end to the illegal drug trade. As part of the agreements, the government has promised to make sweeping improvements in rural infrastructure, while the FARC renounced its role in cocaine trafficking. The accords must be approved by Colombians in a referendum before they become law. Still under discussion are victim reparations and FARC demobilization, topics that analysts expect will be the most difficult. The FARC halted talks in August 2013 to review plans for the referendum. Negotiations resumed several days later. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and James Dalgleish)