Two long-time hostages held by leftist rebels in Colombia were freed Thursday.

They were flown to Venezuela, where they were greeted by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had worked to mediate their release. The former hostages, politicians Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, called for continued efforts to free hundreds of others held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In footage from Venezuelan television channel Telesur, the women were shown saying goodbye to their captors and talking to Chavez.

"Hello, president, Clara Rojas speaking. (...) We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your help, thank you. (...) We are being reborn," Rojas, a former Colombian vice presidential candidate was shown telling Chavez in a telephone conversation.

"President, a thousand thanks for all your humanitarian efforts. Please, president, you cannot lower your guard. (...) Those who were left behind want you to know that. (...) We have to keep working," Gonzalez told Chavez.

The two women appeared to be in good condition and were visibly happy.

"At least she is fine, and the most beautiful thing is their mood and their smile," Rojas' mother Clara Gonzalez told Colombian radio after seeing footage of her daughter before meeting with her.

Two helicopters carrying Rojas and Gonzalez landed at the Buenaventura Vivas air base, in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, after picking them up from rebels in the Colombian jungle.

The released hostages hugged Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, who coordinated Thursday's operation, then boarded airplanes that were to take them to Caracas, where their families were waiting.

Two Venezuelan helicopters marked as Red Cross vehicles had travelled to coordinates provided by FARC in the southern Colombian jungle to retrieve the hostages. It was the second attempt in two weeks to free them.

"They are in our hands, we are very happy," said Barbara Hintermann, head of the Red Cross in the Colombian capital.

Red Cross spokesman Yves Heller said it was not known when Rojas, 44, and Gonzalez, 57, would return to Colombia. It was not known whether FARC planned to release other hostages in the coming days, he said.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos expressed his satisfaction with the releases and said he hoped FARC would follow the move by freeing some 750 other hostages.

Chavez said the next objective was obtaining the liberation of all FARC hostages and "beyond that, to seek peace for Colombia."

The families of Rojas and Gonzalez, a former legislator, expressed their joy and said they eagerly looked forward to meeting their loved ones. The meeting was expected to take place in Caracas.

The two women had been held by FARC for several years, along with hundreds of other civilians and Colombian officials, some of whom have been held for more than 10 years.

The Colombian government authorized the mission and ordered the suspension of military operations in a large area of the southern province of Guaviare.

In 2007, Chavez acted as a mediator in an effort to secure an exchange of some 50 politically relevant FARC hostages for hundreds of leftist rebels held in prison.

But he was dismissed from the job in November by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, after talking directly with a Colombian general after he had specifically been asked not to do so.

In late December, Chavez orchestrated a high-profile international attempt to free Gonzalez, Rojas and her 3-year-old son, Emmanuel, who was born in captivity from a consenting relationship a rank-and-file rebel.

That operation was called off last week, and Uribe shocked the world by announcing FARC could not release Emmanuel because he was already in state custody and had been free for over two years. DNA tests later confirmed a boy in state custody was indeed Rojas' son.

In Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey welcomed the release of the two hostages, praising Uribe but refused to highlight Chavez's role.

"They should have never been taken hostage in the first place. They've been held in captivity too long," Casey said.

Sparring with reporters over Chavez's mediating the release of the hostages, Casey said the United States will continue to work closely with the Colombian government to secure the release of the hostages, including the three Americans taken by FARC in 2003.

"Anybody, including President Chavez, ... who has a role to play that is positive and that supports President Uribe and the Colombian government's efforts is to be welcomed," Casey said.

The European Union also welcomed the development. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he hoped the release was a sign that all hostages would soon be freed.

Rojas was kidnapped on February 23, 2002 along with her party's presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who holds dual French- Colombian citizenship and is the highest-profile hostage held by FARC.

France, where Bentancourt holds dual citizenship, called for further efforts to secure the release of other FARC hostages.

The release of the two women had been an "important sign of hope for those still in captivity," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in Paris.

Gonzalez, then a legislator for the opposition Liberal Party, was kidnapped on September 10, 2001. Her husband, former legislator Jairo Perdomo, died of heart problems during her captivity, in 2003.

The team to release the hostages included the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, four Red Cross delegates and Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, who worked with Chavez last year in mediation efforts.

The Colombian government asked that Cuba join the mission "to acknowledge the efforts that the Cuban government and (President) Fidel Castro have made for a long time for peace in Colombia," Chavez said.