Betancourt gets hero's welcome in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was given a hero's welcome on Friday in France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy had made her release a foreign policy priority and thousands had campaigned for her freedom for years.

Betancourt, 46, was rescued on Wednesday by the Colombian military after more than six years in the jungle as a captive of leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). France was not involved in the rescue.

Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy were on the tarmac to greet Betancourt, who arrived with her family on a special French flight from Bogota. The Sarkozy couple hugged Betancourt and held her hands before also embracing her relatives.

"Ingrid Betancourt, welcome. France loves you," a visibly moved Sarkozy said in a short speech on the tarmac.

A tearful Betancourt gave credit to France for her safe release, arguing that it was partly thanks to French campaigning that the Colombian military had decided against a hazardous commando-style rescue and in favor of a bloodless ruse.

"The extraordinary, perfect, flawless operation of the Colombian army that has allowed me to be here today is also a result of your struggle," she said just after landing.

Thousands of supporters waited for hours to see Betancourt at Paris city hall, where a giant image of her had been displayed on the facade since 2004.

"I think it's time for this horror to come off the wall," a smiling Betancourt said just before cutting down the image of herself, looking thin and ill in captivity. The ecstatic crowd cheered and chanted her name over and over.

REJECTS RANSOM REPORT

Despite her exhaustion, Betancourt, who said she had not slept at all since her release on Wednesday, gave three public speeches, a news conference and a live television interview.

She repeatedly said she did not believe a report broadcast on a Swiss radio station according to which the FARC had received $20 million to free her and 14 other hostages and the daring rescue operation was faked.

"I don't think that what I saw was faked ... When the helicopter took off and the two (FARC) commanders were neutralized, the joy of all of us and especially the joy of those who commanded the operation was no fiction," she said.

Betancourt lived in France in her youth and has dual French nationality thanks to a now annulled marriage, and after her kidnap France embraced her as one of its own. Countless marches and demonstrations were staged on her behalf for six years.

On Friday dozens of her anonymous supporters cheered and wept at a reception for Betancourt at the presidential Elysee palace, where she hugged and kissed them as Sarkozy beamed.

He had actively sought her release since he took office last year, pressing for negotiations with her captors and urging the Colombian authorities to avoid military action.

The French government was consequently kept in the dark about the Colombian rescue mission, unlike the United States, and Sarkozy was informed Betancourt had been freed only after Colombian soldiers extracted her from the jungle.

Sarkozy's rival in the 2007 election, Socialist Segolene Royal, was swift to jump on this, calling his efforts "useless". But she was then widely criticized for sounding a negative note.

"(Colombian President Alvaro Uribe) wasn't always in favor of all the French initiatives," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on RTL radio. "This is a victory for him without any doubt, but it is not a defeat for others," he added.

(Additional reporting by Laure Bretton and Crispian Balmer)

(Writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Richard Balmforth)