Melanie Delloye (left) kisses mom Ingrid Betancourt at a military base in Bogota yesterday. -AP

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP):

Rescued high-profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt em-braced her children for the first time in six years Thursday, saying the thought of them helped her stay alive until a daring rescue plucked her and 14 other hostages from the jungle on Wednesday.

"Nirvana, paradise - that must be very similar to what I feel at this moment," Betancourt said, fighting back tears as her son reached over to kiss her. "It was because of them that I kept up my will to get out of that jungle."

On her first morning of freedom, Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, also visited the church that holds the remains of her father, who died while she was in captivity. Reporters and camera crews swarmed her while adoring Colombians applauded as she left the church.

Betancourt raced to the stairway of the French government plane that flew her children to Bogota,

"The last time I saw my son, Lorenzo was a little kid and I could carry him around," she said. "I told them, they're going to have to put up with me now because I'm going to be stuck to them like chewing gum."

Children Lorenzo and Melanie are now 19 and 22, respectively.

Healthy looking

Betancourt, 46, looked much healthier in the wake of her release compared to previous video images in which she showed signs of malnourishment and fatigue.

The aftermath of yesterday's daring rescue, reportedly engineered without a shot being fired, was a stark contrast to the jungle jails the hostages endured under Colombian rebel group FARC. There, meals generally consisted of rice and beans. Bed was the ground under a patched plastic tarp. They bathed in rivers, and when they weren't chained by the neck to trees, they were forced on long marches to new hideouts.

The hostages said Thursday their gruelling existence worsened in recent months as government troops closed in and clamped down on FARC's resource chain.