Pedro Sanchez said that since president Nicolas Maduro's ouster, Venezuela has been "advancing in operations in the border area" and some dissent groups no longer feel safe.

For decades, Colombia and Venezuela have clashed over Caracas's alleged support for leftist rebel groups that control territory on both sides of the border.

His comments, during an interview in Paris, are the first signal of what would be a major shift in security strategy under Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez.

The two countries share a porous 2,200?kilometre (1,367-mile) border where various armed groups fight over revenue from drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling.

Sanchez said Colombia was already "coordinating" diplomatically with Caracas and called the political change across the border "a unique opportunity" that Colombia must take advantage of to restore security cooperation.

Sanchez said operations by the new Venezuelan authorities were forcing fighters "toward the Colombian side, or in an area a little closer to the border", giving Colombia more room to strike them.

This shift, he said, "has allowed us to act, as we just did on the border with Venezuela", referring to an operation last week in which soldiers killed an estimated 15 ELN guerrillas.

The ELN -- the Spanish acronym for National Liberation Army -- is Colombia's biggest surviving guerrilla group, vying along the border with other armed groups who rejected a 2016 peace deal.

The latest operation came hours after Colombian President Gustavo Petro and US President Donald Trump agreed in Washington to step up cooperation against illegal groups and drug trafficking along the border.

The new cooperation would be "mainly in intelligence", Sanchez said, adding that Colombia would not allow US troops to deploy on its soil.

The goal, he said, is "how we better coordinate intelligence between the United States and Colombia in order to use Colombian force under Colombian norms and international humanitarian law against these criminal groups that commit crimes in Colombia".

Intelligence is key, he added, "so there are no grey areas" in the border region with Venezuela.

Colombia produces about 70 percent of the world's cocaine, of which the United States is the largest consumer.

Colombia has enjoyed a decade or more of relative calm since a peace agreement saw the FARC guerrilla army disarm in 2017.

But there has been a surge in violence ahead of 2026 presidential elections, with bomb and drone attacks in parts of the country and the assassination of a presidential hopeful.