Colombian president to undergo medical tests in U.S.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday said he would be traveling to the United States for specialized medical examinations.

Santos, whose government wrapped up a key peace agreement over the weekend with the country's largest guerrilla force, said he was optimistic about the outcome.

"I remain confident that the results of these new tests will be positive," Santos, flanked by his doctors and wife, said in a statement delivered outside the Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogota medical facility.

His doctors had said the president, who has undergone surgical treatment for prostate cancer before, showed increased levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in his blood during a routine checkup, which could indicate the cancer had returned.

Santos said he will depart on Wednesday, undergo the examinations on Thursday at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and return to Bogota on Friday.

The news of the increase in PSA had taken him and his family "by surprise," he added.

The president said he would take advantage of the trip to meet with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and other political figures over his government's new peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

He will also attend an event organized by the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank on hemispheric affairs.

Santos spearheaded a peace process with his country's biggest rebel group, the FARC, to end more than five decades of fighting in the country, and his government is prepared to negotiate a similar agreement with the second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Front. Endi