CARACAS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Relatives of Colombians kidnapped by Marxist guerrillas flew to Venezuela on Monday to meet with President Hugo Chavez in the hope the left-winger can help break a deadlock over an accord to release hostages.

Chavez has offered to act as an intermediary between Colombian guerrillas still fighting a 40-year conflict and the administration of conservative President Alvaro Uribe who has led a U.S.-backed military crackdown on the rebels.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has held hundreds of police, soldiers and politicians for years, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, snatched in 2002, and three Americans kidnapped while on a counter-narcotics mission the year after.

"We have always asked for a meeting zone to be established, but the important thing is for the FARC and the government to sit down face to face," Angela de Perez, the wife of a kidnapped lawmaker, told Colombia's Caracol television.

The delegation, expected to meet with Chavez on Monday afternoon, also includes Betancourt's mother and some relatives of 11 local legislators kidnapped five years ago and killed recently in violence the government blamed on guerrillas.

"I hope we can do something," Chavez, the most visible face of resurgent leftist politics in Latin America, said during an afternoon speech. "Maybe after today's meeting I will be obligated to seek contact with the guerrillas."

Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a critic of Uribe and an open sympathizer of Chavez, helped organize the meeting with Uribe's approval.

Chavez plans to meet with Uribe in Colombia at the end of August as part of efforts to advance the talks.

Uribe has fostered an image as a hard-nosed leader who has openly confronted the guerrilla groups and negotiated the surrender of right-wing paramilitary death squads in a campaign to reduce Colombia's violence.

The FARC want Uribe to demilitarize an area the size of New York City in southern Colombia to help broker talks over swapping key hostages for jailed rebels. But while Uribe has released some guerrillas in a good-will gesture he refuses to withdraw troops under the rebels' conditions.

U.S. officials have charged that Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, has openly aided FARC rebels, without presenting evidence to support the charges.

Uribe and Chavez have clashed over problems patrolling the two nation's porous border, and in 2005 Chavez cut economic ties to Colombia after bounty hunters snatched a FARC leader in Caracas without Venezuelan involvement. But the ideologically opposed leaders say they maintain good ties.

(With additional reporting by Patrick Markey in Colombia)

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