BOGOTA, June 22 (Reuters) - A Colombian guerrilla released from prison to help broker a deal to free rebel hostages could play a role in verifying troops have been pulled back from any safe haven set up for talks, guerrilla commanders said.

The statement from Colombia's FARC late on Thursday does little to break a deadlock with President Alvaro Uribe over an accord to free hostages held for years in jungle hide-outs, including a French-Colombian politician and three Americans.

Hoping to push the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to agree to a hostage deal, Uribe recently released senior guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda to try to launch negotiations with Latin America's oldest insurgency.

The FARC secretariat insists that Uribe demilitarize a rural area the size of New York City before talks. Uribe, a Washington ally, rejects the demand as an unacceptable condition that would allow the FARC to regroup.

"If the government ... gives guarantees he can move to have direct contact with the secretariat, without official escorts, radios or satellite telephones, we could consider appointing him as a verifier of a demilitarized zone," the FARC said.

Granda's release fueled hope for families of politicians, police officers and soldiers held by the FARC, some for as long as nine years. But so far the government and the guerrillas have made few advances toward any talks.

Fighting in Colombia's war has dropped sharply under Uribe, who has received millions in U.S. aid to battle rebels and drug traffickers in the world's top supplier of cocaine.

But negotiating with the FARC is a sensitive task for Uribe, who is popular for his hard-line tack. U.S. and European governments brand the FARC a drug-trafficking terrorist group.

Uribe released Granda at the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France, Spain and Switzerland have sought for more than a year to broker a humanitarian agreement on exchanging jailed rebels for key hostages.

Among the FARC's high-profile captives are French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt, who was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning for the presidency and three U.S. contract workers snatched in 2003 when their aircraft crashed while on an anti-drug mission.

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