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FARC urges Sarkozy to secure release of hostage

French President Nicolas Sarkozy can help secure the release of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US hostages held by leftist guerrillas, a rebel commander said in an interview published on Thursday.

Sarkozy should push Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to cede the rebels an 800km2 safe haven where talks would be held on exchanging hostages for jailed rebels, the guerrilla commander said. Uribe has repeatedly rejected the proposal.

Sarkozy's ``efforts to advance this proposal will be definitive in bringing home Ingrid'' and the other hostages, said Raul Reyes, a commander and spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on the pro-rebel Web site ANNCOL.

Betancourt, who has dual French-Colombian citizenship, was kidnapped in 2002.

Shortly after taking office last week Sarkozy met with Betancourt's daughter, Melanie, in Paris. The French president spoke by telephone with Uribe last week and reiterated France's desire the Colombian government seek a negotiated release of the prisoners and refrain from any use of force.

FARC seeks to exchange about 60 so-called political prisoners, including Betancourt and three US military contractors, for hundreds of jailed rebels.

In the interview, Reyes reiterated FARC's "unwavering determination" to seek a prisoner exchange, while acknowledging the prospects for such a deal with hard-liner Uribe remain distant.

Uribe recently said he was willing to unilaterally free hundreds of rebels as a good-faith gesture to jump-start talks over the exchange. The proposal was dismissed by Reyes as a "smoke screen" to divert attention from a scandal linking government supporters to right-wing paramilitary militias.
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