Military helicopters buzzed over the capital and soldiers in armored vehicles guarded key city avenues as President Uribe, took the oath of office for another four years.
Mr Uribe, Washington's main South American ally, said he was willing to negotiate with rebels but demanded concrete concessions from them first.
"We are not afraid to negotiate peace. What worries me is something different: the risk of not achieving peace and then rolling back security," he said.
"We will never allow a hollow peace," he said after the swearing-in before the president of the Congress.
During his speech, leftist lawmakers held up photographs of many of the 58 hostages FARC rebels proposed exchanging for some of its 500 imprisoned fighters.
One of the photos depicted Ingrid Betancourt, captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) four years ago when she was a presidential candidate.
The left accuses the President of forgetting about those hostages, who include police, soldiers and some Americans.
Some 30,000 soldiers and police took over the capital on Monday to safeguard 11 presidents and several groups of dignitaries at the ceremony.
Security included snipers on rooftops around the presidential palace, and police and army checkpoints along main routes entering and leaving the city.
Authorities looked to prevent a repeat of Mr Uribe's 2002 inauguration, when leftist guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) used home-made mortars to lob shells at the ceremony.
It was not hit, but one round landed in a nearby neighborhood, killing 21 and injuring 70.
Mr Uribe, 54, a US and British-educated lawyer, promised to crush the 17,000-strong FARC when he was first elected.
Although he has not succeeded, he did increase military efforts against the well-armed rebels, and he was re-elected on May 28 with 62 percent support.
Foreign dignitaries at the inauguration included Presidents Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Alan Garcia of Peru, Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, Alfredo Palacio of Ecuador, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic and Antonio Saca of El Salvador, as well as the vice-presidents of Venezuela and Cuba and Prince Felipe of Spain.
Absent, however, were some of South America's leftist leaders: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Evo Morales of Bolivia.
"That is no coincidence," Carlos Gaviria, president of the Independent Democratic Pole, said.
"Their absence shows Uribe's discordance with the rest of the continent."
Left-of-centre leaders who did attend were Garcia and Arias, both social democrats, and Bachelet, a socialist.
Washington was to be represented by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
The United States has spent billions of dollars on Colombia's drug war.
Much of the 750 million dollars in US aid to Colombia last year went to the war on drugs.
But Colombia remains the world's largest producer and exporter of cocaine.
Since last week armed attacks and car bombings, mostly targeting law enforcement authorities, have ravaged several regions of the country.
Authorities said the attacks were aimed at destabilizing the country before Mr Uribe's inauguration.
In the latest of the assaults blamed on the FARC, a police officer was killed Sunday in a mining village near the border with Ecuador, police said.
More than 200,000 people have died in Colombia's 42-year-old conflict.
Uribe's government has launched peace talks with the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) leftist rebels, and reached a controversial agreement with right-wing armed groups that led to the demobilization of 30,000 paramilitary fighters, who enjoy favorable terms.
Mr Uribe still faces a formidable challenge in his war on the illegal drug trade, which fuels the violence of the FARC and paramilitaries.