Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (C) rides with the newly appointed Police General Commander, Oscar Naranjo (R), during a military ceremony in Bogota 18 May, 2007. President Alvaro Uribe on Friday publicly ordered the military to rescue from rebels Franco-Colombian ex-senator Ingrid Betancourt, over the objections of her family and the French government.

President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday declared himself open to any suggestions France's new president may have to free a Franco-Colombian senator kidnapped five years ago.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday joined the family of Ingrid Betancourt, 45, to publicly oppose Uribe's order to his military to liberate the former senator and 55 other hostages fearing their rebel captors would kill them.

Uribe said his respect was "deep for the new president of France," a fellow rightist.

Then, he put the ball in Sarkosy's court: "We are respectful and receptive to any ideas he may have."

Uribe's order to free the hostages by force revealed frustration at being unable to negotiate a settlement.

Betancourt, a French-Colombian dual national, was a Green Party presidential candidate when she drove into rebel-controlled territory and was captured along with an aide in 2002.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials as FARC, would like to swap its 56 hostages, including politicians and military officers, for 500 of its own currently in Colombian prisons.

"We have to reiterate our will to defeat those terrorists that have abused the Colombian people as the Nazis mistreated so many Europeans," Uribe said in a speech in southwestern Colombia.

A Paris-based Ingrid Betancourt support committee announced Saturday it would protest Uribe's order in the streets of Paris on Wednesday and poured scorn on his plans, which they called a bluff.

Sarkozy met with Betancourt's two teenage children, their French father, and Betancourt's sister, Astrid, on Friday.

Betancourt's daughter Melanie, told France 2 television, that Uribe "is mocking" Sarkozy and France by ordering the military operation.

"If you want to free someone by force, will you announce to the whole world?" she asked. When the rebels hear helicopters approaching "the first thing they will do is execute their hostages. Does that seem logical?"

Foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei late Friday reiterated France's opposition to military action: "That could put the lives of the hostages in danger."

In Bogota, Betancourt's husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte, said that Uribe's order puts the lives of all of the hostages at risk.

The rebels "have already told us that they will kill them. If there is a rescue attempt, they will kill them," Lecompte told AFP Friday.