Sarkozy to greet Betancourt in France

Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt is to arrive in France on Friday, two days after a daring rescue mission freed her after six years in captivity in the jungles of South America.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to greet Betancourt, who has dual Colombian and French citizenship, when she arrives at the at the Villacoublay military airport in Paris at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), Sarkozy's office said

Sarkozy also plans to formally welcome Betancourt to Elysee Palace, the French president's official residence.

Betancourt was among 15 hostages -- including three Americans -- who were rescued Wednesday in a Colombian military operation. She was kidnapped by FARC rebels while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in February 2002.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner accompanied Betancourt's two grown children on a flight from France, where they live, to Colombia on Thursday, allowing Betancourt to see her children for the first time since she was taken captive. operation. Watch how Betancourt spent first day of freedom »

Sarkozy and other French leaders have long sought Betancourt's freedom, but a senior French official said Thursday that France was not aware of Betancourt's release in advance.

Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's closest aide and the Elysee chief of staff, said senior French leaders learned of the successful rescue mission "about 15 minutes before the Colombian wires began to spread the news," he said in an interview with France 3 television.

He said France played no role in the rescue operation and French officials "were not expecting it at that particular moment."

By contrast, American officials had shared intelligence with Colombia that led to the operation, and even U.S. presidential candidate John McCain -- who was in Colombia when the rescue happened -- said he learned of it the night before from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the country's defense minister

U.S. President George W. Bush said Uribe called him Wednesday to tell him about the

France, under former President Jacques Chirac and now Sarkozy, has played an active role in trying to win Betancourt's release and had been collaborating closely with Colombian authorities.

Gueant said the military operation was one of several options France had been discussing to free Betancourt, but that Sarkozy also wanted to negotiate with the FARC rebels. France has several networks of communication with the rebels, Gueant said, all of which were moving ahead.

Colombian General Freddy Padilla de Leon told CNN the mission had been in the works for months, beginning when Colombian agents penetrated the leadership group of FARC, the extreme left-wing guerrilla group that has carried out attacks and kidnappings against the government since its formation in the 1960s.

The United States had recently obtained specific intelligence that helped pinpoint the location of the hostages, a senior U.S. official told CNN. The United States shared that information with the Colombian government, which carried out the rescue with minimal logistical support from the United States, the official said.