French foreign minister: Sarkozy ready to travel to Colombian border for Betancourt

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to travel to Colombia's border with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez if it could help free rebel-held hostage Ingrid Betancourt, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday.

In an interview with Associated Press Television News, Kouchner also said France could temporarily take in freed Colombian rebels in its Caribbean territories as part of a deal to free Betancourt and other hostages.

A French mission to aid Betancourt arrived in Bogota on Thursday, but the FARC rebels holding her said she would remain in their camps until Colombia releases jailed guerrillas.

Betancourt, 46, a former Colombian presidential candidate who also has French citizenship, may be within hours of death if she doesn't get a blood transfusion, according to her son. She has been held for six years by the leftist rebels.

"If there is a hope, Mr. Chavez and Mr. Sarkozy will go to find Mrs. Betancourt at the frontier," Kouchner said on the sidelines of a NATO summit.

"If we don't try there can only be failure, so we are trying. We are fully engaged in this mission to save a woman in danger and the other hostages," he said.

If Colombian President Alvaro Uribe agrees to free FARC rebels, France may allow them transit through the territories of French Guiana or Martinique, Kouchner said.

The FARC wants hundreds of rebels jailed in Colombia freed as part of the swap.

The rebel group has insisted that as part of any prisoner exchange, two FARC leaders imprisoned in the United States must be let go. They are Nayibe "Sonia" Rojas, convicted last year in a U.S. court of exporting cocaine, and Ricardo Palmera — whose nom de guerre is Simon Trinidad and who was convicted in a hostage-taking conspiracy.

Betancourt's plight has taken on added urgency since another hostage who spent months with her was released in February and reported she has hepatitis B and a tropical skin ailment.

Colombian news media have reported this week that she is near death, quoting unidentified peasants who say they have seen her.

A French government jet landed at an air base in Bogota on Thursday carrying two diplomats and two doctors, said Colombia's armed forces chief, Gen. Freddy Padilla.

But Padilla said the French team, which hopes at least to offer medical treatment to Betancourt, doesn't even know where she is being held.

Sarkozy has made several high-profile appeals for Betancourt's freedom.