Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a public appeal to the head of Colombia's FARC guerrillas on Saturday to release high-profile French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

"From here I send a request to Manuel Marulanda. Manuel Marulanda, send us Ingrid. Send us Ingrid. On this International Women's Day, I expressly ask you to do it," Chavez said in a speech during a Women's Day ceremony in Caracas.

"When you can, when the conditions make it possible, liberate Ingrid Betancourt. She's the only woman who is still in the hands of the FARC. It doesn't make sense to keep her in the jungles of Colombia," Chavez said to a cheering audience of women, including Betancourt's mother.

France has been pushing Colombia to try to negotiate the release of Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, who was abducted six years ago and is very sick with liver ailments and depression.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, may not give up Betancourt, considered one of its strongest bargaining chips, unless it gets something major in return from the Colombian government.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has taken a hard line with the FARC, fighting it with the military instead of accepting its terms for an exchange of hostages for rebels held in government prisons.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/10/2008 page12)