Bogota  - The husband of Ingrid Betancourt, the woman freed after six years as a hostage of leftwing rebels, says the couple may separate after their long years apart.

Juan Carlos Lecompte told the daily newspaper "El Tiempo" on Wednesday that he could not exclude "that things are over with Ingrid."

"This happens. I am not just now thinking about this, but it's been on my mind for some time. Our love may have died in the jungle," he was quoted as saying.

In the week since her spectacular liberation from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC,) the Colombian press has dwelled on the restrained greeting Betancourt gave her husband when she arrived in military fatigues at an airport fresh out of her jungle prison.

"I am very happy about her liberation, but I must admit that I had expected something else. I had hoped for a warm embrace, not even a kiss since all the world was watching," Lecompte said. "But there was no such embrace, and I stepped aside."

Lecompte has fought through the long six and a half years for her release, carried out by a theatrical ruse by the Colombian military.

When Betancourt flew away to Paris the day after her rescue with her grown children who live in France, Lecompte was not along. But he denied that he had been asked to leave the plane.

"Who knows what she heard about me in the jungle, or what people were telling her, for example, about an alleged relationship I was supposed to have had with a Mexican woman," Lecompte said.

"Our love may have died in the jungle. What can I do about that?" he asked.

He said he wanted to give her time to get her life in order.

"I waited for six and a half years for her," he said. (dpa)