(Recasts, adds Uribe remarks)

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Colombia was under fire from the International Red Cross on Wednesday after the aid agency demanded the government clarify whether it had deliberately misused its emblem during a mission to free rebel hostages.

Colombian intelligence officers disguised as aid workers tricked Marxist FARC rebels into handing over hostages including French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans in a helicopter mission in the jungles last month.

A video of the July 2 operation, leaked this week to Colombia's RCN television, showed an officer wearing the Red Cross symbol at the start of the rescue.

It apparently contradicts the government's claim that the emblem had been mistakenly used at the end of the mission.

"If authenticated, these images could clearly establish an improper use of the Red Cross emblem, which we deplore," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.

"We are in contact with the Colombian authorities to ask for further clarifications," it said.

President Alvaro Uribe last month apologized, saying one of the officers involved slipped on a Red Cross vest at the last minute while in a helicopter because he was nervous when he spotted many rebels on the ground waiting for him to land.

Uribe, who says the government was not fully informed about the details of the mission, apologized again on Wednesday and said authorities would take action against anyone who had lied in the investigation.

"Errors can be forgiven, especially when they are in good faith driven by fear, but lies in an investigation of this importance to the country cannot be forgiven," he said.

Falsely using the Red Cross symbol, which represents the neutrality of the aid group, is against the Geneva Conventions as it could put humanitarian workers at risk in war zones.

The military has called for an investigation into how the video of the operation was made and then passed to RCN.

The rescue of Betancourt, a former presidential candidate kidnapped in 2002, the three Americans and 11 other hostages has been praised as one of Uribe's greatest successes against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Uribe's U.S.-backed campaign has driven the rebels into remote areas and sharply reduced violence from the Andean country's four-decade-old conflict. (Additional reporting by Javier Mozzo; Editing by Xavier Briand)

AlertNet news is provided by