Feb 1 (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels freed four members of the security forces on Sunday, their first release of kidnap victims in more than a year in what the guerrillas called a humanitarian gesture.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) still holds hundreds of captives for ransom and political leverage in its decades-old war, but it has been battered by President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed crackdown.

Following are some facts about hostages held by the FARC and other armed groups:

* Kidnappings that once plagued Colombia have dropped from nearly 3,000 in 2002 to 437 last year due to Uribe's security drive, according to the Defense Ministry.

* FARC rebels are still holding hundreds of hostages for extortion and about 20 other high-profile captives, including politicians, police and soldiers who they say they want to exchange for jailed guerrilla fighters.

* In July last year, French-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. contractors and 11 other hostages held by the FARC were rescued by the Colombian military. The rebels were duped into turning their most-prized captives over to security officers disguised as aid workers.

* In October, a rebel commander escaped with a politician held hostage for more than eight years in a sign the FARC is struggling to keep its ranks intact under military pressure.

* Freed and escaped hostages recount terrible conditions in secret jungle camps, where they are harried constantly by the army, suffer from disease and some have been chained by the necks to trees to prevent them escaping.

* The FARC has said it wants hard-liner Uribe to pull troops back from a rural area around the size of New York City to create a safe haven to stage a hostage swap. Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping in 1983, says that would allow the rebels to regroup. He has offered a smaller zone under international observation. (Compiled by Helen Popper in Bogota)

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