Sarkozy 'will come to Colombia' to free hostage

France has asked Venezuela for help with a hurried mission to free an ailing hostage held by Colombian rebels, but President Hugo Chavez says he is powerless until Colombia and the US stop hunting a rebel leader.

France announced that President Nicolas Sarkozy was willing to travel with Venezuela’s left-wing president to the Colombian-Venezuelan border to try to secure the release of Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who also has French nationality.

Ms Betancourt, 46, is in her seventh year of captivity in the jungles of south-east Colombia. She is among hundreds of people, including three US contractors, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Mr Chavez, who negotiated earlier FARC hostage releases, says he wants to help, but indicated the US and Colombia should first stop trying to catch the rebel commander known as Ivan Marquez, a member of the FARC’s ruling secretariat.

“We have information which indicates that agents from governments of Colombia and the US are hunting Ivan Marquez,” Mr Chavez said in Caracas.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he did not know who Marquez was. Asked about Mr Chavez’s suggestion that US actions could lead to progress towards the hostages’ release, Mr Casey said: “I’m not sure what he’s referring to.”

In March 2006, the State Department announced a reward of up to €3.1m for information leading to the arrest of any of the FARC secretariat’s seven members.

The US Embassy, which has overseen the delivery of billions of dollars in counterinsurgency aid to the Colombian military, had no reaction.

Yesterday Mr Chavez told a Caracas news conference he would continue to work for the freedom of FARC hostages but would no longer speak about his efforts.

A French government jet remained at an air base in the Colombian capital Bogota after landing on Thursday to rescue Ms Betancourt – or at least provide her with medical attention.

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has offered “all possible efforts” to help, but the mission has made no apparent headway. Spain and Switzerland support the humanitarian mission, which the rebels have not publicly discussed.

Astrid Betancourt, the hostage’s sister, said the French flew to Colombia “without having any pre-agreement with the guerrillas”, motivated by rumours that she was gravely ill.

“That’s why they sent this plane, to see if this initiative would provoke a reaction in the FARC, but knowing it was very unlikely,” Astrid Betancourt told Colombian radio from Paris.

“That way they wouldn’t later have to say, ’We didn’t go and something happened’.”

The Colombian media have reported this week that Ms Betancourt is at death’s door, quoting unidentified peasants who say they have seen her. Another hostage who spent months with her and who was released in February said she had hepatitis B and a disfiguring skin disease spread by sand flies.