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Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt confirmed a report in newspaper El Tiempo that the French emissary had traveled to a secret location to meet Raul Reyes, one of the top commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
"The (Colombian) government authorized the French government to intercede on behalf of the people who have been kidnapped," Pretelt told reporters.
The 13,000-strong rebel army known by the Spanish initials FARC wants to swap a group of about 70 hostages for hundreds of rebels held in government jails.
The French government is particularly interested to secure the release of Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian national captured by rebels while campaigning for Colombia's presidency for a small left-wing party in early 2002.
Former French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, now prime minister, was forced to apologize after an embarrassing incident in 2003 when France sent a military plane to the Brazilian Amazon after false intelligence Betancourt was about to be freed. Brazil, which had not been informed of the plan, ordered the plane to leave its territory.
The hostages also include politicians, soldiers, police officers and three Americans -- U.S. Defense Department contractors seized in 2002 when their light aircraft crashed on a narcotics surveillance mission in southern Colombia.
But a deal has looked unlikely under the staunchly anti-FARC government of President Alvaro Uribe. Colombia last year extradited a top FARC commander to the United States after the rebels refused an ultimatum to release their hostages.
Although they enjoy little popular support, the FARC has waged a war for socialist revolution for 41 years in a conflict claiming thousands of lives a year. The peasant militia funds itself with the cocaine trade and kidnapping for ransom.
RCN Radio
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