By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA, June 14 (Reuters) - The French family of a politician kidnapped more than five years ago by Colombian guerrillas pleaded on Thursday with her captors for proof she was still alive in one of their jungle camps.

French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt is one the highest profile hostages held with three Americans and local lawmakers by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency.

"What has happened that it is so difficult to give us proof of life," Betancourt's French ex-husband Fabrice Delloye told Caracol radio. "It would be a significant gesture ... We ask ourselves what has happened to Ingrid, what has happened in the jungle."

The plight of FARC hostages was highlighted this month when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe freed a jailed top FARC commander in an attempt to broker negotiations on the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe, a Washington ally who has received billions of dollars in U.S. military and anti-drug aid to fight the FARC and the cocaine trade that has fueled the Andean country's violence.

But aided by drug trafficking, the FARC is still fighting in remote areas and negotiating over hostages is a tricky task for Uribe, whose popularity is built on his hard-line stance.

Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen who has two children with Delloye, was snatched in 2002 while she campaigned for the presidency.

Details of her harsh life as a hostage were revealed when a police officer who escaped after nearly nine years in a FARC prison camp said he had been held with her and the three Americans until he fled into the jungle at the end of April.

The three Americans -- U.S. contractors Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- were captured when their aircraft crashed on a drug eradication mission in 2003.

All four were last seen in videos released in 2003. Families hope Uribe's release of Rodrigo Granda, known as the FARC foreign minister, and around 150 guerrillas could lead to a deal to exchange jailed rebels for hostages.

But Granda told Reuters on Wednesday he still had no contact with the FARC leadership and no agreement with the French or Colombian governments. He said Betancourt and the three Americans were in good health, but offered no proof.

Rebels also demand Uribe demilitarize a safe haven for talks, a condition he rejects.

"Four and a half years and we have heard nothing of Ingrid," Delloye said. "Without proof of life, it is hard for us to have any faith."

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