Colombian president has urinary infection, at no risk

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who underwent cancer surgery in October, is suffering from a urinary infection but there is no risk to his overall health, his office said today.

Santos, who is at his official retreat in the coastal city of Cartagena, is able to continue with his daily agenda after a regular checkup, his doctor, Felipe Gomez, said in a statement sent by the president's office.

"I was in a post operative checkup and now I am back to my normal routine," Santos, 61, said in a Twitter message.

The conservative president told Colombians in October he was suffering from non-aggressive prostate cancer and needed surgery. The disease had been caught in time and there was minimal risk, he said back then.

The Harvard-educated economist is in peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Marxist-inspired insurgency that has killed tens of thousands over 50 years.

A peace deal would help secure Santos a place in history and allow him to build on the economic and security advances that began under former President Alvaro Uribe a decade ago.

Success would also determine whether he would seek a second term in 2014.