BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- International pressure is growing for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and guerrillas to reach a deal to free dozens of rebel-held hostages, including a French-Colombian politician and three American contractors.

The flurry of diplomatic efforts to win the release of rebel kidnap victims intensified this week at the inauguration of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who joined France and other Latin American nations voicing support for a hostage deal.
Uribe last week proposed meeting with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to negotiate a swap of the hostages in exchange for guerrillas held in government jails in an attempt to break the deadlock over possible talks.
""If the guerrillas still have any political ideas, I hope they'll heed the international pressure,"" Uribe told reporters in Buenos Aires as he attended the inauguration.
Uribe's most recent proposal included the condition talks be held in a sparsely populated rural area where there are no government security forces.
The FARC, Latin America's longest-running rebel insurgency, has not responded to the offer. The guerrillas have held French-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt since 2002 and three Americans since 2003.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy began an international pressure campaign to convince the rebels to negotiate, and has urged several leftist Latin American leaders to help him.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said regional leaders should make a joint call for Betancourt's release during a meeting next week of the Mercosur trade bloc.
The renewed diplomatic efforts come after the Colombian government earlier this month released captured rebel videos of some hostages, provoking an outcry over their plight.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva also offered to help Colombia to negotiate the release of hostages, an assistant to the president said on Monday.
France's Prime Minister warned Saturday the plight of Betancourt was ""a matter of life and death,"" as support for the release of her and others by Colombian rebels.
""She must be freed. It is clearly a matter of life and death,"" Francois Fillon told reporters. ""No one wants to bear responsibility for failure"" of efforts to free her, he said.
Betancourt's son Lorenzo, now 19, was 13 the last time he saw his mother. In a radio appeal Friday, he called her ""my sweet little mama, my heart.""
""I want you to live,"" he told her in the message on RFI radio, which can be heard in Colombia, his voice steady. ""I want you to eat and have the will to live.""