FRANCE/IRAQ: France said yesterday two French hostages held in Iraq were being well treated but there were hurdles to overcome to secure their release.
"We know they are being well treated. Beyond that, I hope we remain prudent and that everyone, everywhere and especially here, keeps their composure," Foreign Minister Mr Michel Barnier said on France 2 television from Amman in Jordan.
Earlier, hopes rose for the quick release of journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, seized on August 20th, with an Iraqi negotiator and the Arab League both expressing optimism they would be freed soon.
French Prime Minister Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin expressed "prudence but confidence" about the prospects of securing their release.
"We have positive information but there are hurdles to overcome," he said in La Chapelle-Montreuil, in western France.
In Iraq, Sheikh Hisham Duleimi, who is involved in negotiations to free the men, said there were "excellent signs" they would be freed soon.
"We have reached positive, tangible results regarding the release of the two French journalists," Mr Duleimi said. "The signs are good, excellent."
Arab League secretary-general Mr Amr Moussa also said he believed the two men would be released soon. He said he had been in contact with people in Iraq, but did not elaborate. "I believe the two hostages are on the way back to freedom. This is our hope and we see things developing in this direction," he said while attending a conference in Cernobbio, northern Italy.
Mr Duleimi, who has been involved in negotiations that have won the release of other kidnapped foreigners in Iraq, said Malbrunot and Chesnot were in good health but did not say whether he was in direct contact with the group holding them.
An Islamist website said the Islamic Army in Iraq, which kidnapped the journalists, had issued a statement promising to announce a decision on their fate soon.
"The Islamic Army's legal committee will soon announce its decision. We have not delegated any group or person to negotiate or talk on our behalf," the statement said, dismissing suggestions it had handed the hostages to another group.
The authenticity of the statement, which the website said was carried by another website, could not be verified.
Editors at the daily newspaper Le Figaro, which employs Malbrunot, said on Thursday that French officials had told them the hostages had been handed to a Sunni Muslim guerrilla group which was willing to negotiate their release.
The seizure of the Frenchmen has stunned France, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq and has no troops there. Mr Barnier has been on a shuttle mission in the Middle East to try to save the reporters, and has drummed up support among Arab states. Mr Moussa said France had earned respect in the Arab world.
"France has followed a policy that gave her a lot of credibility and a lot of friends in the region, so everybody was interested in helping France," he said.
A visit to France by Iraqi President Mr Ghazi Yawar, planned for next week, was postponed indefinitely due to the hostage crisis, a French diplomatic source said.
The kidnappers demanded Paris rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools. But the ban came into force on Thursday and, with the hostage crisis still unresolved, was challenged by only about 70 schoolgirls.
Militants in Iraq are using kidnappings as part of a campaign to undermine the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US-led occupation.
Scores of hostages from dozens of countries have been seized in the past five months, and more than 20 have been killed.
Militants announced on Thursday that they had killed three Turkish captives.
Police confirmed that they had found three bodies by a road north of Baghdad, believed to be the hostages.