By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA, June 20 (Reuters) - A Colombian father whose soldier son has been held hostage for nearly a decade by guerrillas has begun hiking across the country in hopes he can help break a deadlock over freeing rebel kidnap victims.

Gustavo Moncayo's son, Pablo Emilio, was captured when guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, attacked an army post in 1997 shortly before his 19th birthday. Moncayo has heard nothing of him for more than four years.

His hands bound by chains in a symbolic gesture and Pablo's face printed on his T-shirt, Moncayo hopes to walk from Narino province on the border with Ecuador to Bogota 550 miles (890 km) away in about 20 days, collecting signatures to pressure for a hostage accord.

"The years are ticking by ... This brings a message of hope for all the kidnap victims, that they should stay strong," Moncayo told Reuters by telephone as passersby greeted him at the start of his walk on Tuesday in the southern city Pasto.

Hundreds of politicians, police and soldiers are being held in jungle camps by guerrillas in Latin America's oldest insurgency, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans captured by the FARC in 2003 while on a counter-narcotics mission.

Moncayo last heard from his son in a video and letters released by the guerrillas four years and three months ago, but he still hopes after nearly ten years of waiting that the government and the guerrillas might finally sit down for talks.

"This is the perhaps worst drama one can live, but we are still fighting," he said. "At times I feel like I am going to collapse, but I keep going and keep my spirits up."

A teacher and father of four daughters, Moncayo, 55, hopes the solidarity of supporters along the way will help him out with lodging and food.

The plight of Colombia's hostages was highlighted this month when President Alvaro Uribe freed a senior FARC guerrilla commander in hopes his release would prompt rebel leaders into a deal on exchanging jailed rebels for key hostages.

Rodrigo Granda, known as the FARC's "foreign minister," says Betancourt is still alive, but has offered none of the proof demanded by her family. Uribe said he released Granda at the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

While violence from Colombia's four-decade conflict has dropped under Uribe, the FARC, aided by funds from cocaine trafficking and extortion, is still fighting.

Granda's release had sparked hope for families like the Moncayos, but so far the FARC's leaders have stuck by their demand that Uribe demilitarize a rural area the size of New York City before any talks. Uribe says that is unacceptable.

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