By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;will&nbsp;discuss&nbsp;Venezuela&nbsp;in wide-ranging&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with Colombian President Gustavo&nbsp;Petro&nbsp;on Thursday, including U.S. willingness to further ease&nbsp;sanctions&nbsp;on the OPEC nation only in return for concrete steps toward free elections there, a senior administration&nbsp;official&nbsp;said.
Previewing the leaders' first meeting, the&nbsp;official&nbsp;told Reuters that&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;would reiterate to&nbsp;Petro, who has called for lifting&nbsp;sanctions&nbsp;on&nbsp;Venezuela, that he is not prepared to provide significant&nbsp;sanctions&nbsp;relief to President Nicolas Maduro&rsquo;s government until he agrees to democratic steps with the country&rsquo;s opposition.
Relations between neighbors Colombia and&nbsp;Venezuela&nbsp;have warmed since&nbsp;Petro's inauguration in August, and Maduro has welcomed moves by Bogota to organize an international conference on April 25 to promote resumption of&nbsp;talks&nbsp;between his Socialist government and opposition politicians.
The&nbsp;White&nbsp;House&nbsp;talks&nbsp;are aimed at renewing historically strong ties between Washington and Bogota and charting a new relationship with Colombia&rsquo;s first leftist president. The broad agenda will also include anti-drug cooperation, regional migration,&nbsp;Petro&rsquo;s peace efforts with rebel groups as well as climate change.
Since taking office,&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;has eased some U.S.&nbsp;sanctions&nbsp;on&nbsp;Venezuela&nbsp;- many imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump in a "maximum pressure" campaign - to encourage dialogue. But negotiations have stalled again.
&ldquo;Unilateral lifting of&nbsp;sanctions," the&nbsp;official&nbsp;said on condition of anonymity, "will line the pockets of people who have already stolen billions of dollars from&nbsp;Venezuela&nbsp;... The two presidents are going to likely&nbsp;discuss&nbsp;it and I think we can find common ground."
Underscoring their differences, however,&nbsp;Petro&nbsp;said at the United Nations this week the objective of the&nbsp;Venezuela&nbsp;conference would be "more democracy, zero&nbsp;sanctions.&rdquo;
The U.S. has expressed a positive view of the planned conference but is waiting for details to decide formally whether to attend and at what level, the&nbsp;official&nbsp;said.
The Colombian government has said it expects&nbsp;officials from the U.S., Latin America and Europe but Maduro and the opposition will not be represented.
Anti-drug efforts will also expected to figure into Thursday&rsquo;s&nbsp;talks, another issue on which the&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;administration and Colombia&rsquo;s leader, a former M-19 rebel, have not seen eye-to-eye.
Petro, whose country is a top cocaine producer, has derided as a failure what has long been considered a U.S.-led war on drugs, calling for a new international approach.
The&nbsp;official&nbsp;said it was now a misnomer to call it a drug war, that the U.S. was pursuing a more "holistic response" and was looking for ways to "adapt to the priorities of his government."
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Oliver Griffin in Bogota; Editing by Alistair Bell and Stephen Coates)

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Biden to discuss Venezuela sanctions with Colombia's Petro in White House talks -official