Ingrid Betancourt, the best-known hostage of Colombia's Marxist Farc guerrillas, may not be as ill as previously thought but Paris still wants a doctor to visit her, France's foreign minister said today.
France has sent a medical mission to Colombia to try to get access to Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen who has been held in the jungle for six years by the Farc, but the guerrillas have not yet given permission for a visit.
Ms Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, while campaigning in 2002.
France has said she is very sick, suffering from hepatitis and other illnesses, and her son has said she will die within days unless she receives a blood transfusion.
"We have the impression not only that she is alive but that she is doing better than was said. But I could be wrong," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told LCI television.
"In any case, we are doing everything as if we had to free her immediately," he said, adding that Ms Betancourt's health must have worsened.
Mr Kouchner said France was standing by its mission to gain access to Ms Betancourt. "We are not going to leave after 24 hours," he said. "We are waiting for this signal from the Farc."