Colombian soldiers disguised as members of a non-governmental organisation hoodwinked a guerrilla leader into allowing Ms Betancourt and three US hostages to board a helicopter to freedom, according to Colombia's Defence Minister.

By Andrew Gumbel A French mercy mission landed in Colombia yesterday in a high- stakes effort to get medical help to Ingrid Betancourt, the former presidential candidate held by anti-government Farc guerrillas for the past six years and who is now believed to be gravely ill.

Text of report by privately-owned, nation-wide Colombian Caracol radio website on 27 February [Text of communique issued by the Secretariat of the Central Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in the "Mountains of Colombia" on 27 February] 1.

By Carlos Alberto Gonzalez After three years apart, the freed Colombian hostage, the politician Clara Rojas, was at last able to hug her son, fathered by one of her Farc guerrilla captors but taken from her when he was eight months old.

BOGOTA, Colombia _ Just in case the hostages were