Colombia's Santos To Meet Venezuela's Chavez In Santa Marta Tue

BOGOTA (Dow Jones)--President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will meet Tuesday in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, in Colombia, in an apparent bid to restore diplomatic relations.

The governments of the two countries had announced the presidents' intentions to meet Tuesday after Santos took office on Saturday. The only remaining question was where the two leaders would meet.

Local media reported Monday that the city of Santa Marta had been chosen for the meeting. It was near that city that South American independence hero Simon Bolivar, who Chavez hails as inspiration for his socialist government, died in 1830.

The Venezuelan government recently exhumed the remains of Bolivar to determine whether he died of tuberculosis or poisoning, which Chavez suspects.

Santos has vowed to improve diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which had traditionally been Colombia's second-most important trading partner after the U.S.

A series of confrontations between Chavez and former President Alvaro Uribe has hurt Colombian exporters, with trade dropping billions of dollars because of the diplomatic clashes.

Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia in July after the Uribe government accused it of sheltering leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in Venezuelan territory.

-By Darcy Crowe, Dow Jones Newswires; (57) 1 703 8953; darcy.crowe@dowjones.com