BOGOTA -- Lawyers for two FARC rebel leaders captured in the stunning July rescue of 19 key hostages claim they had been in touch with FBI and U.S. Embassy officials to arrange a handover, but were sidestepped at the last minute.

The rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. defense contractors and 15 other hostages from the southern jungles of Colombia was hailed as a master stroke of deception for the country's security forces.

Not a shot was fired as two FARC commanders turned over their hostages to what they had been told was a ''humanitarian'' mission that landed by helicopter near their camp -- in fact a government rescue team.

SIMILAR AGREEMENT

But now two Colombian lawyers interviewed by El Nuevo Herald claim that they acted as middlemen between the two FARC commanders and U.S. and Colombian authorities for a similar handover agreement -- though they acknowledge they were not part of the actual release.

El Nuevo Herald was not able to contact the U.S. Embassy on Saturday for a comment.

Carlos Arturo Toro López, a lawyer who has handled many U.S. extradition cases, and another lawyer who asked to remain anonymous, told the newspaper they got involved in the case because they had contacts with FARC intermediaries who were offering to help arrange the hostages' release.

They claimed they contacted the U.S. Embassy, where they spoke with agents of the FBI and other ''intelligence'' agencies, as well as a Colombian counter-terrorism prosecutor and an official of the attorney general office's investigative arm, known as CTI.

They also contacted Atlanta criminal attorney Jeffrey Manciagli, because ''if you negotiate here [in Colombia] and you don't negotiate with the gringos, you haven't negotiated anything,'' said the second lawyer.

Manciagli confirmed he was contacted, and the Colombian lawyers showed El Nuevo what they said were e-mails detailing their work to arrange the release. One notes the U.S. government's readiness to pay $350,000 ransoms for the U.S. defense contractors and other hostages.

DETAILS OF A DEAL

Toro López's partner said their intermediary with the two FARC commanders who were in charge of the hostages eventually agreed to a deal under which they would provide map coordinates for the release, the government would send in helicopters, the hostages and two rebels would board the aircraft, all would be released, and the guerrillas would be protected from U.S. extradition requests.

The two Colombian lawyers said they then again contacted the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which agreed to the plan but asked for proof the hostages were alive, which never came. At the same time, they sent the two FARC commanders documents to sign appointing the lawyers as their legal representatives.

President Alvaro Uribe appeared to have been aware of the some negotiations, at one point publicly referring to ''a rebel who is offering to hand over Ingrid Betancourt'' and promising not to extradite him.

SWIFT OPERATION

But as the lawyers waited for the FARC commanders to sign the powers of attorney, they were shocked on July 2 to hear that Betancourt, the three Americans and 15 other hostages had been freed in an operation very much like the one they had been working on.

With some differences: Colombian authorities insisted they had tricked the two FARC commanders into releasing the hostages; the two commanders -- Gerardo Aguilar, alias ''César'' and Alexander Farfán, alias ''Enrique Gafas'' were captured and put in jail; and they may well face extradition to the United States.

Said Manciagli: ``My idea is that there was a negotiation, and that [the FARC commanders] thought they were handing over those people just like they had negotiated. But the government wanted all the credit.''

As for Toro López and other lawyer, they sometimes laugh about the case.

''Just after the release was announced, friends in the FBI, the police and the prosecutor's office began to call to congratulate us'' said the second lawyer. ``There are those who still can't believe that we could not be there at the end.''

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