Italian hostages released by Niger kidnappers

ROME, Oct 14 (Reuters) Two Italian tourists kidnapped in Niger in August have been released in Libya, the Italian foreign ministry said today.

The hostages, Claudio Chiodi and Ivano De Capitani, were kidnapped on August 22 by an armed group calling itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara (FARS), which confirmed they had been freed.

The foreign ministry said they were ''released today, in Libyan territory.'' Italian television said both were in good health.

''Claudio and Ivano are free. They left for Libya three days ago,'' a member of the FARS, who identified himself as Mohammed, told Reuters by satellite phone.

Italy's ANSA news agency said they were due to leave Tripoli airport for Italy later today.

The two men were kidnapped along with 20 other mostly Italian tourists on Niger's border with Chad as they drove in a convoy of off-road vehicles.

Most of the group were released the next day but, according to Chiodi who was interviewed by Reuters by satellite phone during his captivity, the kidnappers took the two Italian men to a mountain hideout in a mined area along the remote border.

The Italian foreign ministry thanked the Libyan authorities, particularly the Gaddafi Development Foundation, which it said had been vital in securing the release, in collaboration with the Italian intelligence services and diplomacy.

In an interview with ANSA, the director of the Gheddafi Development Foundation, Saleh Abdu Salam, said the two men ''are in excellent condition and are now leaving for Italy.'' ''The negotiations were drawn-out particularly because the group were moving continuously from one part of the Sahara to another,'' he said, adding that they arrived in Tripoli on Thursday night.

FARS are one of numerous ethnic Tuareg, Arab and Toubou groups in Niger's desert north to have staged an uprising in the 1990s demanding more autonomy from a black African-dominated government far away in the capital.

Some Tuareg groups accepted a 1995 peace deal but the Toubou FARS held out until 1997 when they were granted an amnesty. Members of the group have accused the Niger government of failing to respect that accord.

REUTERS BDP VV1810