Juan Carlos Lecompte, Ingrid Betancourt's husband will fly over FARC held areas in the jungles of south Colombia on 13 May to drop recent photos of the two children of the kidnapped former Presidential candidate.

Lecompte stresses that this gesture is the result of a promise made by him, in his recently published book, that his wife could 'see' her children.

"I hope that one of these photos will fall into the hands of Ingrid who has not seen her children for three years", he stated, explaining his intention to have 6000 recent photos dropped from a plane over the jungle.

Lecompte will leave on Friday from the airport of Guaymaral (north of Bogotá) to fly over the eastern ridges of the Andes where he thinks his wife is being held hostage.

Ingrid Betancourt's husband states that he has informed FARC guerrillas of his initiative but not the Colombian government.

Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped on 23 February 2002 has dual French Colombian nationality and her husband has just published a book called 'In Search of Ingrid' in which he expresses his doubts that he can find again the happiness he once had with his wife.

"There is a 50% possibility that she may be dead and a 50% that she will come back alive. As regards the latter possibility there is still a 50/50 chance that we will find again the happiness we knew in former times and equally there's a possibility that we might separate," he wrote in his book.

For months, the Colombian government and FARC have stated they are in favour of an exchange but cannot agree on the details, especially on the location of the talks. At the moment the two sides seem little inclined to negotiate but refuse to take responsibility for failure to agree.

FARC hold 1600 hostages, according to the authorities in Bogotá and 300 members of the FARC army are currently held in prisons in Colombia.