Italian and Egyptian hostages freed

1.00pm

BAGHDAD - Two female Italian hostages seized in Baghdad three weeks ago have been freed along with kidnapped Iraqis and Egyptians in a flurry of releases, but an abducted Briton remained under threat of death.

An Arab television report said two French journalists were also close to being freed, but the French government declined to comment.

The two freed Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were safe and well, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. They and two Iraqi colleagues seized with them had been freed after "difficult" negotiations, he said.

News of their release sparked scenes of joy across Italy, and Italian television showed live pictures of the jet carrying the two Simonas, as they are affectionately known in Italy, touch down at Ciampino airport.

"We are well," the two told reporters before they were taken away for questioning by anti-terror magistrates looking into their kidnapping.

Within minutes of their release, an Egyptian telephone company said four of six of its engineers snatched last week had also been set free.

But the fate of British hostage, engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was seized 12 days ago and has been threatened with beheading, remained unclear.

Pari and Torretta, both aged 29, were taken at gunpoint from their central Baghdad offices on Sept. 7 in a brazen kidnapping that jolted the thousands of foreigners working in Iraq.

"This is an extraordinary moment of joy," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who thanked Arab and Islamic leaders for helping Rome during the crisis.

SECRET SERVICES

A Kuwaiti daily said earlier on Tuesday the women's captors had agreed to free the hostages for a US$1 million ransom.

Announcing their release to parliament, Berlusconi said the secret services had located their whereabouts earlier this week, but rather than risk using violence to secure their release, the Italian government had preferred to negotiate.

He said the breakthrough came early on Tuesday "after a night which led us to a very difficult choice with two lines of pursuit which could have been mutually conflictual."

He gave no further details and did not mention any ransom.

Despite the flurry of releases, which follows the freeing on Monday of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped nearly two months ago, there has been no word on the fate of Bigley, 62, abducted by gunmen with two American colleagues from their Baghdad home.

The Tawhid wal-Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's number one enemy in Iraq, beheaded the two Americans after demands for female prisoners to be released from jail in Iraq were not met.

Video footage of their murders was posted on the internet.

A man Al Arabiya television said was negotiating the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq said on Tuesday he met the two and that an agreement had been reached to free them soon.

"They are in good health, psychologically and emotionally. After meeting them, we reached an agreement to free Christian (Chesnot) and Georges (Malbrunot) and get an audio tape from them announcing they would be freed soon," Philippe Brett told Al Arabiya television.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said French authorities had no comment to make. France has been notably circumspect in official comments on the hostages' status in recent weeks after an early release of the two failed to materialize.

US BOMBARDMENT

Outside Baghdad, US warplanes bombarded rebel-held areas, targeting fighters loyal to Zarqawi, while Jordan's king said Iraq was too dangerous for elections to be held in January.

King Abdullah, one of Washington's staunchest Middle East allies, said he did not see how national polls could go ahead amid such violence. His comments came after Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted the insurgency was worsening.

"It seems impossible to me to organise indisputable elections in the chaos we see today," the king told French daily Le Figaro before meeting President Jacques Chirac in Paris.

"If the elections take place in the current disorder, the best-organised faction will be that of the extremists and the result will reflect that advantage."

Iraq's foreign minister said on Tuesday a decision had been made to hold a ministerial conference in Egypt in November to help promote stability in the country and back the elections.

Hoshiyar Zebari said in an interview with two reporters that the conference would be held from Nov. 22-24 at the foreign ministers level.

"The goal of the conference is clearly defined to seek the support of all these countries for the political stabilisation of Iraq and to support the electoral process," Zebari said.

Participants would include neighbours of Iraq, the Group of Eight industrial nations, China and envoys from the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the European Union, he said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq