BOGOTA, April 17 (Reuters) - Colombian state energy company Ecopetrol and its Brazilian counterpart Petrobras should work together on developing green hydrogen, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"There is a project that I think we could look at through our two big oil companies, Petrobras and Ecopetrol, together in a clean energy project," Petro told a bilateral business forum in Bogota after the two men met privately.

"I propose a common project in green hydrogen in Colombia and Brazil so we can be the vanguard of clean energy in South America and the world," Petro said.

The two countries also signed cooperation deals on fighting crime, hunger and human trafficking and said they would improve fiber optic provision in their shared Amazon area.

The leaders agreed that whoever loses Venezuela's July presidential election should have their safety guaranteed, Petro said later in joint remarks with Lula.

The Biden administration will reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday in response to what U.S. officials see as President Nicolas Maduro's failure to meet his commitments for free and fair elections this year. (Reporting by Oliver Griffin Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Chris Reese)