Colombia has launched a massive military operation to track down and rescue one of Latin America's most prominent clerics.

We have made a significant deployment of troops in that entire region,

Martha Lucia Ramirez, Defence Minister

Jorge Jimenez, president of the Latin American Bishops' Council, was abducted by rebels on Monday.

The government responded by mobilising soldiers and helicopters, as a major manhunt got under way.

"Since last night we have made a significant deployment of troops in that entire region," Defence Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez told reporters.

"We also have some helicopters helping in the operation."

Army General Reynaldo Castellanos said the military was doing everything within its power to rescue the 60-year-old bishop, who was reportedly seized outside Bogota by three or four members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's oldest and best-armed rebel group.

Zipaquira residents took to the streets in protest

Mr Jimenez, who serves as archbishop of Zipaquira, was captured along with parish priest Desiderio Orjuela, 65.

Residents of Zipaquira, near Bogota, reacted emotionally to the kidnapping, marching through the streets to demand the clerics' release.

Zipaquira's mayor, Evert Bustamante, urged the kidnappers to show "total and complete respect for the physical integrity of the bishop and the pastor, as they are two people who have had a long commitment to peace in Colombia".

Papal appeal

Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II appealed for the safe release of the two clergymen, and called on the kidnappers to abandon all forms of violence.

Colombia's army has blamed the FARC for the abduction, the latest in a long line of attacks on clergy in the war-torn country.

This is a crime against humanity

Carlos Alberto Ospina, Army Chief General

Two gunmen stopped the bishop's car around 1000 local time (1500 GMT) on Monday as the clerics were on their way to perform a religious ceremony in the town of Pacho, 55 km (35 miles) north of the Colombian capital.

The clergymen's driver, who was released along with a teacher also in the vehicle, alerted the authorities.

Army chief General Carlos Alberto Ospina said the authorities were offering more than $35,000 for information leading to Bishop Jimenez's release.

"This is a crime against humanity," he said, appealing for national solidarity in the face of the abductions.

Prominent figure

Bishop Jimenez has been president of Celam for two years.

The bishops' conference coordinates church activity in 22 Latin American states which account for nearly half of the world's Roman Catholics.

As well as heading Celam, Bishop Jimenez has served as secretary-general of the Episcopalian conference in Colombia, an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a priest, with most of the attacks against clergy being carried out by Marxist guerrillas:

• More than 20 priests and two bishops have been killed in the Colombian civil war since 1989.

• Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino of Cali, an outspoken critic of the rebels, was shot dead at point blank range in March as he left a church in a poor neighbourhood - a killing which shocked the country.