* Talks unlikely without an initial cease-fire
* Government promises to hunt down other FARC bosses
BOGOTA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas on Friday said they wanted a chance for peace negotiations a day after troops killed their top military chief in one of the worst blows to Latin America's oldest surviving insurgency.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have often called for talks since the government began a U.S.-backed security crackdown eight years ago but the two sides have never been close to agreeing on conditions for negotiations.
Top guerrilla commander Mono Jojoy was killed on Thursday in an air strike and ground raid on his jungle camp, delivering a blow to the FARC's leadership and its military capacity.
"We continue to call for an opportunity for peace," the FARC said in a statement posted on Anncol website that carries rebel communiques. "It is not through the extermination of opponents that Colombia will find peace and reconciliation."
Battered by the government's offensive, the FARC is at its weakest in decades. Rebels have lost several top commanders in the past three years and its ranks have been thinned by desertions as fighters flee under military pressure.
Guerrillas are still a force in rural areas and over the last month have stepped up attacks, killing 22 police officers in two recent attacks.
But negotiations are unlikely unless rebel commanders met government conditions: cease hostilities, release soldiers and police officers held hostage and halt criminal activity such as cocaine trafficking.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who took office last month, has vowed to keep up his predecessors hard-line security approach, which has driven down bombings and kidnappings from the war and helped foreign investment grow five-fold in the past eight years. (Reporting by Patrick Markey in Bogota; Editing by Bill Trott)
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