BOGOTA, March 26 (Reuters) - Colombia said it grabbed at least 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of uranium from the country's biggest left-wing rebel group on Wednesday, the first time radioactive material has been linked to the bloody four-decade-old guerrilla war.

The material was found in a rural area long considered a guerrilla stronghold just south of the capital city Bogota. It is being examined by state experts, said a Defense Ministry statement.

The statement did not say where the uranium came from or what it could be used for.

"This appears to have been part of a black market operation that the guerrillas were trying to use to make money," said Pablo Casas, an analyst at Bogota think-tank Security & Democracy.

"This is new for Colombia and could bring the FARC into the major leagues of black market terrorist transactions," Casas said.

Information about the uranium was found earlier this month in computer files left behind by top guerrilla leader Raul Reyes, who was killed in a Colombian bomb strike carried out in Ecuador. The March 1 raid sparked an ongoing diplomatic dispute with the neighboring country.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is funded mostly by cocaine smuggling and extortion. The group says it is fighting a communist insurgency meant to close the wide gap between rich and poor in this Andean country. The war kills, displaces or maims thousands every year. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein, editing by Philip Barbara)

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