A commission of the lower chamber of Colombia's parliament on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at allowing President Alvaro Uribe to run for a third term in 2014, but ruled out a second immediate re-election.

Under the bill, Uribe would have to sit out a term after his current term ends in two years. He was re-elected in 2006.

However, legislator Miguel Angel Rangel regretted giving the head of state "vacations" for later comeback in 2014.

"I find trivial the issue of 2014. It is not possible to spend 114 billion Colombian pesos (50 million U.S. dollars) on a referendum when we could have done a political reform," Rangel said.

The First Commission of the Chamber of Representatives refused to change the text of a referendum that asks voters if they would allow Uribe to seek another four-year term.

His supporters said they were trying to change the proposal to let Uribe run in 2010 in order to ensure continuity of his popular policies on defeating leftist insurgents and attracting foreign investment.

A slowing economy and his handling of a wave of pyramid investment schemes that have recently collapsed have added pressure on his high popularity. Thousands of depositors were left broke due to the collapse of the schemes.

On Tuesday, two legislators from the ruling party refused to vote in the referendum over considerations that their provinces were affected by the collapse of the pyramid investment schemes.

The bill must breeze through both houses of the parliament before it becomes final.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)