Left-leaning President Fernando Lugo dispatched extra police and troops last month to track down members of a small, armed group blamed for a murders and kidnappings in remote areas bordering Brazil and Bolivia.

Congress in the poor, landlocked South American nation granted the government special powers to fight the Paraguayan People's Army (PPA), which has been linked to Colombia's FARC rebels.

The government lifted the measure this week even though no arrests were made.

"My feeling is that it won't take us much longer and soon we will achieve this aim," Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, said in a speech.

Lugo visited the northern province of Concepcion, one of five agricultural regions covered by the security crackdown, to give an update on the 30-day operation - the biggest in the South American country in a decade.

The special powers had allowed police to arrest and transfer suspects without a warrant and ban public gatherings in the regions.

"It's a lie that we're going to abandon the north and lose the sense of safety we've gained. We will continue to gain ground, meter by meter, in the battle against the PPA, drug trafficking and the criminals that have made themselves the owners of this region," Lugo said.

Opposition lawmakers, who control Congress, have criticized Lugo for the lack of arrests in the hunt for members of the PPA, who are armed with sophisticated weapons and trained to operate in jungle areas.

Police and government officials say the group has about 100 members and is active in marijuana-growing areas of Paraguay, which is an important regional supplier of the drug.