Gunmen kill Lebanese, kidnap 2 Italians in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Feb 23 (Reuters) Gunmen shot dead a Lebanese engineer and kidnapped two Italians in two separate incidents in Nigeria's oil city Port Harcourt today, authorities said.

The Italian Foreign Ministry recommended that its nationals leave the Niger Delta, Africa's largest oil producing region where kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities are on the rise.

''Some gunmen opened fire on a car on the outskirts of Port Harcourt and a Lebanese engineer was killed,'' Rivers State Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said by telephone.

''Two Italians were taken in the riverine area, but that is another location entirely,'' he added.

Bloody communal clashes, kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities are frequent in the delta, a vast maze of mangrove-lined creeks and swamps, but killings of foreigners are relatively rare.

The Lebanese man was an engineer working for a local construction firm, while the two Italians work for Italian-based Impregilo , a big building company.

Rising violence against foreigners in the world's sixth largest oil exporter has prompted thousands of oil workers to leave the delta and oil exports are down by a fifth.

Militants say they want all oil workers to leave the region and for oil exports to stop entirely to force the central government to renegotiate the terms of the delta's union with the rest of Nigeria.

EVACUATE An Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government was urging Italian nationals and businesses to transfer to safer zones, even within Nigeria.

Two foreign workers, a Dutch and a Belgian, were killed in January, an unusually high toll for one month.

The abduction of the Italians raises to 10 the number of foreigners being held by different armed groups in the delta, where hostages often suffer from diarrhoea and malaria.

A Lebanese hostage regained his freedom on Wednesday after spending 11 weeks in captivity.

The man's employer, Italian oil giant ENI , said he was released, but the group holding him said he escaped and vowed revenge on the company and state government. That group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), denied any involvement in Friday's killing.

It is still holding two Italian employees of ENI.

MEND's emergence in late 2005 has brought a new sophistication and ferocity to a decades-long struggle by activists fighting for more autonomy in Nigeria's far-south.

MEND says it is fighting for regional control over the delta's oil wealth, freedom for two jailed leaders and compensation to delta villages for decades of pollution.

Its attacks have triggered a wave of copy-cat kidnappings for ransom around Port Harcourt, and rising political tensions ahead of landmark elections in April have contributed to the chaos.

REUTERS SAM RK2252