French government seeking rapid release of its agents kidnapped in Somalia

The French government is seeking the rapid release of two of its agents kidnapped in Somalia, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday.

"There are terribly contradictory noises and in this situation we are doing all we can to get these two men out of the mess," said Kouchner in Warsaw after talks with Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski.

Kouchner refused to confirm or deny reports on contact between Paris and the hardline Shebab militia, which is believed to have kidnapped the two men from a Mogadishu hotel room on July 13.
"Allow me to remain discreet...Contacts are as necessary as they are multiple. All kinds of reports are going around, to which you shouldn't pay much attention," he said.

A senior Somalian security official told AFP in Mogadishu Sunday that discussions with the Shebab militia over the pair's fate had been broken off, while in Paris a senior official said the group was "ready to talk."

The kidnapped pair are French defence officials on a mission to support Somalia's beleaguered transition government, although they said they were journalists when they checked into their hotel.

"These two envoys kidnapped in Mogadishu were representing France's commitment to train a certain number of Somali soldiers," Kouchner said. "This training had begun. I'd like other countries to commit themselves with us in order to complete the training."

But the situation in Somalia remains unclear.

"It looks that hopes of negotiations to release the French hostages are fading by the day," the Somalian said Sunday.

"All contacts with the captors are called off so far and the government does not know the whereabouts of the pair," he said.

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