BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s popular President Alvaro Uribe moved closer being allowed to run for a third term next year when a Senate committee approved a bill late on Wednesday aimed at clearing the way for a 2010 campaign.

The combative conservative leader, seen as a hero by many for his military crackdown on drug-running leftist rebels, was elected in 2002 and again in 2006 after the constitution was amended to allow one re-election.

His staunchest supporters want another legal change to allow a third term. The lower House last year approved a bill that called for a referendum to ask voters if they want allow Uribe to run again in 2014, after sitting out a term.But the Senate committee amended that bill to call a referendum for a 2010 run instead. The measure now goes to a vote by the full Senate, where the president has an ample majority. If it is passed by the Senate, and then by a bicameral committee, the bill will be reviewed by the Constitutional Court, where most judges are expected to vote in favor of the measure.

Colombian law says 25 percent of the electorate, or more than 7 million voters, must participate in the referendum in order for its results to be valid.

There is concern about the damage a third Uribe term might do to democratic checks and balances, but his popularity stands at around 70 percent and no serious rivals have emerged. Parties that had planned to offer their own candidates in 2010 have backed down in the face of heavy government lobbying.