*Uribe pledges tough response to FARC killings

*FARC says executed eight Indians for spying

*Intelligence report says FARC planning to boost attacks

(Recasts, adds security service report)

By Helen Popper

BOGOTA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Colombia's government vowed on Tuesday to step up military action against FARC rebels after the guerrillas said they executed eight Indian villagers for passing intelligence to the army.

President Alvaro Uribe, who has led a crackdown that has pummeled the leftist rebels in recent years, condemned the killings, which he said would further erode the rebels' credibility.

"Our decision today is to reinforce our anti-terrorist policies," Uribe said during a visit to Brazil, attacking the FARC for the "cynical" killings of the Awa Indians.

Dozens of Awa villagers fled their homes following reports that as many as 27 people had been killed earlier this month by the rebels, who are fighting a four-decade-old insurgency against the government.

Only one body has been found in the remote, jungle region in southwestern Colombia where the killings took place but the rebels on Tuesday admitted responsibility for eight deaths. They said the men had been spying on the rebels for the army.

"As a result of the military operations, their responsibility in the deaths of numerous guerrillas and their undeniable active involvement in the conflict, they were executed," the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, said in a statement posted on a website regularly used by the rebels, http://anncol.eu/

Army chief Gen. Freddy Padilla denied the army had been paying Awa informants.

The United Nations refugee agency says the 21,000-member Awa community -- one of many Indian tribes caught up in the conflict -- suffer persistent human rights abuses due to fighting between criminal gangs and guerrillas for cocaine-producing land.

HARD LINE

Uribe has taken an increasingly hard line against the FARC, despite the Marxist guerrilla group's release two weeks ago of three hostages, a move that raised hopes it could free more.

Uribe last week ordered the army to step up operations to rescue the remaining hostages held by the FARC for years and ruled out any deal to swap captives for jailed guerrillas.

Once a powerful peasant army of 17,000, the guerrillas have been battered by Uribe's U.S.-funded military crackdown, mass desertions and the deaths of several top commanders.

However, they remain a powerful force in some areas and a new intelligence services report warned they are planning to step up bomb, sniper and landmine attacks from next month in the hope of wresting back lost terrain and political power.

According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, the FARC's bearded commander, Alfonso Cano, has masterminded a strategy dubbed Plan Renacer (Rebirth) that includes more urban attacks.

The document, based on intelligence intercepts and statements from fighters who deserted, says the rebels aim to step up attacks in March to mark the first anniversary of the deaths of three top commanders.

"The FARC want to reposition themselves politically and at the same time intensify the guerrilla war by planting more landmines and staging more attacks with bombs or snipers," a top military official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A drive to increase urban attacks aimed "to show they haven't been defeated," the official said.

Urban violence has ebbed since Uribe took office in 2002, but the government has blamed the FARC for two deadly bombings in the capital Bogota and the southwestern city of Cali this year. (Additional reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Ray Colitt in Brasilia; Editing by Eric Beech)

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