French FM meets Venezuelan president on release of FARC hostages

CARACAS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Wednesday to discuss the liberation of hostages held by Colombia's largest rebel group.

"I want you to believe the hostage release is going to have a happy ending," Kouchner told reporters after the meeting at the presidential palace.

He said his talks with Chavez were about the release of "all of the hostages" held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who holds both French and Colombian citizenship.

"We spoke about the liberation of the hostages, all of the hostages, of course Ingrid, but also all of the others," Kouchner said, without giving details of their talks.

The French top diplomat also said the French government will do everything possible to try to appease the political tension between Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

On March 1, Colombia launched an across-border attack on a FARC base in Ecuadorian territories, which led to the breakoff of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

After the attack, Chavez joined hands with his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa to deploy 10 army battalions to the Venezuelan-Colombian border and decree a state of general alert to avoid a possible attack by Colombia.

On March 7, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia agreed to declare the border crisis over at the 20th Rio Group Summit in the Dominican Republic.

Venezuela is the last leg of Kouchner's three-nation tour in South America, aimed at easing the diplomatic tension to create conditions that could facilitate the release of FARC-held hostages.

His meeting with Chavez followed meetings Monday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota, and Tuesday with Correa in Quito.