Two French journalists freed after a four-month hostage ordeal in Iraq returned to a heroes' welcome in Paris.
Government officials said no ransom was paid for their release.
President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin greeted Mr Georges Malbrunot and Mr Christian Chesnot at a military airport outside the capital Paris a day after they were freed by Iraqi militants.
Both looked healthy but thinner than before.
"We are very happy to be back home because it's very tough when you're surrounded by armed, masked men," said Mr Malbrunot (41), who reports for the daily Le Figaro. He said their release came as a surprise but went smoothly.
"We were not badly treated," said Mr Chesnot (37), a Radio France Internationale correspondent.
The two, who were seized on August 20th as they drove from Baghdad to Najaf, said they were held in five different hiding places, including a farm outside Baghdad where Italian reporter Enzo Baldoni was kept before being killed on August 26th.
"We played the French journalists card," said Mr Malbrunot, stressing to their captors that they were not Americans and France had not supported the US-led war in Iraq. They were close to bombings by US forces on two occasions, he added.
Mr Malbrunot also launched into an expected post-release debate by denouncing as an impostor a French politician who visited Baghdad saying he would free them. "This was gambling with the lives of two compatriots," he said.
Opposition politicians are expected to grill the government about why France failed to win the hostages' release earlier despite its traditional pro-Arab policies and outspoken opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Details of their release were sketchy but Mr Raffarin inisted the conservative government had not bought the men's freedom.