French still hopeful of hostages release

The French foreign minister was today on standby return to the Middle East to help win the release of two hostages as experts analysed whether a ransom demand was authentic.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said a day earlier that the £3m (€4.5m) ransom demand, posted on a website, had “provoked a lot of scepticism from experts".

However Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said today that the web posting on a site known for militant Muslim comment, was still being examined.

Signed the Islamic Army of Iraq, the name of the group that has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, the demand gave France 48 hours to pay a ransom and accept other conditions.

Ladsous reiterated that French authorities are making a point of talking as little as possible about developments in the hostage-taking so as not jeopardise the kidnapped journalists’ safety.

He said Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who returned Sunday from a week long trip to the Middle East, “was available at any moment to return to the region,” Ladsous said.

Barnier, who was in Macedonia today, said authorities were hopeful about seeing the journalists’ freed.

“We are receiving information every hour about the situation,” he said. “We are working with great energy and discretion in order to achieve the release.”

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot disappeared on August 20 on a trip to the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. The militants claiming to hold the men have demanded that France revoke a law banning Islamic head scarves from state schools. The law went into effect as planned last week, and France has refused to back down.