BOGOTA, March 28 (Reuters) - Colombian soldiers killed 10 members of the country's biggest left-wing rebel group in a battle on Wednesday over jungle territory the guerrillas use to produce cocaine, the army said.

The government has gone on the offensive against the rebels under President Alvaro Uribe, who won re-election last year based on the popularity of his security crackdown.

No government forces died in the clash with the four-decade-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, which took place in the southeast province of Meta, an army spokesman said.

The 17,000-member FARC, which started as a peasant movement pushing land reforms meant to narrow the wide gap that separates rich and poor in this Andean country, uses the cocaine trade to fund its war against the state.

Thousands of Colombians are killed in the conflict every year while tens of thousands are pushed from their homes by violence. Uribe's father was killed by the FARC in the 1980s.

Colombia has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid aimed mostly at fighting drugs and defeating the FARC, which is branded a terrorist organization by Washington.

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