A group of Shamans from Peru on Monday performed a ritual to plead for good relations between Colombia and Peru, after a diplomatic spat over the ownership of a recently surfaced island in the Amazon.

The ceremony was held atop the San Cristobal Hill, in the Peruvian capital Lima.

Marino de los Santos, a Shaman from Huaraz, said they chose the location as they consider it an Apu, or a "mountain of power."

The disputed territory is a small formation of more than 27 square kilometres in the middle of the Amazon River, named Santa Rosa Island, which emerged in the middle of the last century.

Currently, some 3,000 people live there, spread across more than 10 villages.

On Tuesday, Petro accused Peru of occupying this territory, which he considers part of the Colombian Amazon, and of violating a bilateral treaty signed in 1934 between the two countries that ended a war fought between 1932 and 1933 over border limits.

However, Peruvian authorities maintain that it has always been Peruvian territory because, they claim, it is part of a larger island called Chinería that was assigned to that country by a binational demarcation commission in 1922.

Peru has said it is willing to engage in dialogue but not to cede its territory.

AP Video by Cesar Barreto