Still no word from FARC guerillas on Betancourt: France

PARIS (Reuters) - A French medical mission is still waiting to hear whether Colombian FARC guerrillas will let them treat French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday.

A French aircraft carrying at least one medic arrived in Colombia's capital Bogota on Thursday. It is now sitting on the tarmac at a military base waiting to fly into the jungle and take care of Betancourt, held for six years, as soon as they get the green light from her Marxist captors.

The FARC have not given any indication they will let the French in, but Kouchner said the team was prepared to wait.

"We are there and we are determined to pursue this. Now we are awaiting news from the FARC," he told France 2 television.

"We are on alert, this isn't finished," he said, adding that all South American leaders supported the French mission, including Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who have fallen out over how to deal with the FARC.

Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who was kidnapped while campaigning in 2002, is the highest profile hostage being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

France has said she is very sick, suffering from hepatitis and other illnesses. "We have received very worrying information about the state of health of Ingrid Betancourt and the other hostages," Kouchner said.

A top FARC commander, Rodrigo Granda, said on Thursday Betancourt would not be handed over immediately. He said rebel captives, who include three U.S. contractors and dozens of politicians, police and soldiers, could only be freed through a negotiated agreement to swap hostages for jailed guerrillas.

He did not say whether the medical team would be allowed into the jungle camps.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Matthew Jones)