Hollande appoints envoy on Colombia kidnap reporter

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday appointed an envoy to a group set up to help secure the release Romeo Langlois, a reporter kidnapped by FARC rebels, the French ambassador to Colombia said.

"I can confirm that one of the first actions of President Hollande was to designate an emissary to participate in the (humanitarian) mission to free Langlois," ambassador Pierre-John Vandoorne told the Caracol radio station.

The representative will be available "at the first opportunity," when the rebels give a positive signal for the release of Langlois, a 35-year-old French correspondent for the international television network France 24.

The journalist was taken hostage on April 28 by fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while he was with government troops conducting a counternarcotics operation that he was filming.

The Marxist guerrillas have promised to hand over Langlois to a delegation of officials that it says must include longtime Colombian mediator and former lawmaker Piedad Cordoba, the Red Cross and an official representing Hollande.

Cordoba has facilitated several hostage releases in the past.

Founded in 1964, the FARC is Colombia's oldest and largest insurgency, with more than 9,200 guerrillas.