A rebel "proof of life" video released on Thursday by a left-wing senator involved in hostage talks showed the first images of captive lawmaker Oscar Tulio Lizcano in four years. It shows Lizcano asking Uribe to cede to rebel demands for a deal.
"I've been here imprisoned for more seven years now," Lizcano said in the grainy video showing him with four uniformed guerrillas. "Don't let us rot away in this jungle."
STALLED PEACE BID
France attempted a similar initiative in 2003 when it sent a military transport plane to Brazil's Amazon jungle region after Betancourt's family heard she might be released there.
But Brazil and Colombia were angered when the aircraft arrived without warning in the Amazon city of Manaus, close to the Colombian border, and the FARC was unaware of the mission.
Attempts to reach a deal to free 40 key hostages, including three U.S. contractors captured in 2003, in exchange for jailed rebels are deadlocked over a FARC demand that Uribe pull back troops from a swath of land to facilitate negotiations.
Two top FARC commanders were killed in March, including Raul Reyes, a key contact for attempts to negotiate a hostage accord. Those strikes have raised questions about the rebel leadership and the chances of reaching an agreement.
Colombia's attack on Reyes inside Ecuadorean territory also sparked an Andean crisis with Ecuador and ally Venezuela sending troops to their borders with Colombia.
Regional tensions are still high as Uribe, a staunch U.S. ally, accuses his leftist neighbours of sheltering the FARC.
Betancourt, a presidential candidate and her vice presidential proposal, Clara Rojas, were captured at a rebel roadblock while campaigning in 2002 in a southern province.
Rojas gave birth to a boy while in captivity. She was one of the hostages released in January under a deal arranged by Chavez, a left-winger who has stoked tensions with Bogota by calling for more political recognition for the guerrillas.
Started as a Marxist peasant army, the FARC once controlled large swaths of Colombia, but rebels have been driven back since Uribe came to office in 2002. U.S. and European officials label the FARC a cocaine-trafficking terrorist group.
