By Samuel Elijah

COTONOU, April 9 (Reuters) - Voodoo priests cried out in tongues and made sacrificial offerings on Wednesday, imploring God and the ancestors to help free French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt from the hands of Colombia's FARC rebels.

The ritual by initiates in Benin, the West African home of the ancient religion, was part of a three-day programme of fasting and prayer decreed by President Thomas Yayi Boni for Betancourt, who has been held hostage since 2002.

"May the love and mercy of God touch the hearts of those who do not yet understand, so they may know that to harm someone is to harm oneself," voodoo high priest Dah Aligbonon said as initiates offered up sacrifices of cowrie shells and cow's milk.

Some initiates cried out in unintelligible tongues.

The ceremony omitted the bloody sacrifices of chickens or other animals which characterise many voodoo rituals, "because we are begging the souls of the ancestors that forgiveness may reign in the hearts of men," Aligbonon said.

Christians and Muslims have also held prayer sessions since Boni made his appeal on Monday in a rare foray into global affairs for a small, poor country that rarely makes headlines abroad.

"Nobody who hopes for any lasting prosperity can or should remain indifferent to the drama now unfolding in the jungle of Colombia," Boni said in a statement on Monday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Benin's former colonial power and a key donor, says Betancourt is ill and close to death and has made it a priority to secure her release.

The 46-year-old French-Colombian citizen was kidnapped while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

Betancourt, three Americans and politicians, police and soldiers are among 40 political captives whom the FARC says it wants to exchange for jailed fighters. The guerrillas and government are deadlocked over a hostage deal.

A French medical team called off a mission deep into the jungle to try to obtain Betancourt's release on Tuesday after FARC rebels rejected the overture. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner vowed to find another way to help her.

Aligbonon said differences of geography and race were no obstacle to Benin's intercessions on Betancourt's behalf.

"Ingrid Betancourt is a creature just like us, even if her skin is different. We make no distinction between men: we are all the same," he said.

Centuries ago Benin was known as the Slave Coast due to the many Africans shipped in chains from its shores to the Americas. Some took with them their voodoo beliefs, which survive in different forms in Caribbean countries like Haiti and Cuba. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson, editing by Mary Gabriel)

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