Colombia will send its peace commissioner to Paris to deliver a request for French President Nicolas Sarkozy to take part in hostage swap talks with the country's largest rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a lawmaker said Tuesday.
Luis Carlos Restrepo will leave for Paris later Tuesday, said Mauricio Lizcano, a member of a Colombian commission negotiating for the release of the hostages.
According to Lizcano, the role envisioned for Sarkozy would be a fully-fledged negotiation partner, and not as mediator or facilitator as common in such situations.
France has been very interested in Colombia's hostage crisis as French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt is among the hostages the FARC hopes to exchange for some 500 rebels held by the government.
Betancourt, who has French and Colombian citizenship, was kidnapped while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in 2002.
Source: Xinhua
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