BOGOTA (AFP)--President Alvaro Uribe agreed Tuesday to suspend military operations in southeastern Colombia to allow the deployment of a medical mission to treat French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

"Once relevant authorities are informed by the humanitarian mission about the coordinates of the area where they will be admitted ... we will suspend military action there," Uribe told reporters after speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy by telephone.

Earlier in Paris, Sarkozy urged Manuel Marulanda, the chief of the Marxist FARC rebels who have held Betancourt for more than six years, to release the 46- year-old hostage, saying she was "in danger of imminent death."

Concern about Betancourt's health has grown after recent reports that the FARC took her to medical facilities in southeastern Colombia in late February, prompting France to put a plane and a medical team on standby in case she is freed.

She is said to be gravely ill, suffering from hepatitis B and leishmania, a skin disease caused by insect bites.

Betancourt was kidnapped in February 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

She is the most prominent of 39 hostages whom the FARC want to exchange with the government for 500 jailed rebels. But the two sides have failed to agree on conditions for a swap.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  04-01-08 1512ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.