rural area of the Catatumbo region, near the border with Venezuela.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders welcomed the release as "very good news" and thanked the Colombian authorities for having worked hard to free the men.

Photos released by the Ombudsman's Office show the Dutchmen flanked by armed and masked ELN fighters before being transferred to its delegation.

The Colombian Ombudsman's Office, or Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia, is a national government agency which oversees the protection of civil and human rights.

'It was quite heavy'

Television journalist Bolt, 62, and cameraman Follender, 58, had been on an assignment to search for the mother of a Colombian child adopted in the Netherlands when they were taken.

In an interview picked up by fellow Dutch journalist Edwin Koopman , Bolt told Colombian broadcaster Caracol Radiothe rebels had given him a "very long" document containing points about the peace talks.

image copyright Reuters image caption Protests have been held across Colombia this week to demand the release of the two Dutch journalists

He and Follender, he said, were both well apart from some minor cuts from bushes.

They had thought they were being robbed when they were kidnapped, he said. They were kept hidden in houses but one day they were made to walk for 14 hours to evade the army.

But the rebels had been respectful and never threatened to kill them, he told the radio.

"It was rather heavy," he said, "but the people accompanying us were quite nice."

"While our families at home feared for us, we were sitting drinking coffee with the guerrillas."

'Pleased and relieved'

Dutch