Ingrid Betancourt gestures before her radio address to hostages in Spanish on Radio France International on Monday. (Jacques Brinon/Associated Press)

While rescued hostage Ingrid Betancourt tirelessly performs interviews and meets with politicians in France, recordings of her voice are being broadcast in Colombia's jungles urging rebels to turn themselves in.

Three short messages recorded by the dual citizen who is French-Colombian have been booming from loudspeakers attached to helicopters that are flying over the jungles where Betancourt was held for six years before the military freed her in a daring mission.

In the messages, Betancourt tells Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels that their lives will be respected and they'll get back their honour, family and liberty if they surrender.

Defence officials said the idea came from Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who was kidnapped while campaigning in a dangerous zone.

The 46-year-old was among 15 hostages freed last Wednesday when Colombian military officers duped the rebel captors into handing them over over by pretending to be part of the group.

Since Betancourt's arrival in France several days ago, she has done back-to-back media interviews, admitting at one point that she had yet to spend quality time with her two children, Lorenzo and Mélanie.

"I feel that I owe so much…," she told the French magazine Pelerin when asked why she accepts so many interview requests. "I owe so much to the love of all for being here that I'm not able to say no."

Tone down hateful language, Betancourt urges

A French campaign to free Betancourt caused her to become a cause celebre in the country and drew international attention to the plight of hundreds of hostages held by leftist rebels.

Betancourt has also addressed radio messages to hostages, and on Monday asked President Alvaro Uribe to tone down "radical extremist language of hate" toward her former captors.

On Wednesday, she is scheduled to visit lawmakers at the National Assembly, the powerful lower house. She will also be awarded the Legion of Honor July 14, on Bastille Day, France's national holiday.

Betancourt spent part of her captivity chained to a tree and at one point fell seriously ill. However, initial medical tests suggest she has not contracted any serious illness.

Her group often marched up to 25 kilometres a day through the jungle, she told France 24 television Monday. But for six months at one point, while in a camp surrounded with barbed wire, the hostages were treated to the luxury of several books, including Harry Potter, she said.

FARC was established in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. The militant group later became involved in the cocaine trade as a means of raising funds.

The Colombian government estimates the group has between 6,000 and 8,000 armed members and a military presence in 15 to 20 per cent of the country, particularly remote jungle and mountain areas.

Some estimates put the number of FARC fighters at as many as 18,000. The governments of Canada, the United States and the European Union all consider the organization a terrorist group.

With files from the Associated Press