Bogota - Clara Rojas, a former hostage held by leftist Colombian rebels, said the family of high profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt hid for two months evidence that Betancourt was alive.

In an interview published by the Colombian daily El Tiempo on Monday, Rojas - who was Betancourt's vice presidential candidate when the two were kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in February 2002 - said Betancourt's family hid the evidence to keep her in the media spotlight.

Rojas, who was released by FARC in early 2008, said this was one of the reasons why the two women grew apart during their time in the jungle.

"It is as if Ingrid had been kidnapped alone. The family never referred to me," Rojas complained. "In isolation, it was harder to discover that I could not count on them. They never referred to me in their public comments."

Betancourt - who holds both Colombian and French citizenship - was the most high-profile hostage held by FARC. She was rescued in a Colombian secret service operation in July 2, 2008, according to the official account of events made by Colombian authorities.

Rojas, a lawyer by training who is set to release her book Cautiva - captive - in the coming days, said the work will keep secret the identity of the father of Emmanuel, a son whom she conceived in the jungle.

There is speculation that the boy was fathered by a rank-and-file FARC rebel who was executed as punishment for his involvement with the female hostage.

"That totally belongs to my private life. It is a story for Emmanuel, when he asks me for an answer," Rojas said. "People have received me with great understanding. They are not asking or demanding. That has allowed me to leave behind a story that has its portion of burden and of pain."

Rojas further complained about the treatment she got from fellow- hostages when they found out she was pregnant, amid tension already rife in the group and which other former hostages have already told of in various books.

"We lives in a very tense atmosphere. I try to understand that we were under very heavy military presence, many had health problems, their own personal pains, we were piled up," Rojas said.

"The situation was very hard to face and perhaps the people who were next to me did not have that emotional capacity to allow them to be more open," she noted.

When she referred to Betancourt - the mother of two teenage children - Rojas said she did not find in her the support she hoped for when she asked for advice on motherhood. On one occasion, Betancourt shouted at her because she tried to go first in a line for hot water, Rojas claimed.

"I was pregnant and I ran to fill my flask. I did not see a problem about going first. With Ingrid's shout I let go of the water and burned myself. From then on the gringos took water for me to avoid clashes between the two," she said of three US defence contractors who were held by FARC at the same time. (dpa)