BEIJING (Reuters) - The crew of a Chinese ship hijacked by Somali pirates in mid-October was safely rescued, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday, making no mention of a reported ransom payment.

The De Xin Hai, owned by a unit of China Ocean Shipping or COSCO, was carrying coal and 25 Chinese crew from South Africa to India when seized by pirates east of the Horn of Africa, some 700 nautical miles east of Somalia, on October 19.

Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said the crew was rescued early on Monday morning Beijing time, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"The ship has been under the protection of Chinese warships. We will carry out medical checks for the crew, send them to safe waters and bring them back to China as quickly as possible," Jiang said.

The announcement brought to a subdued end a hijacking that had highlighted China's growing presence on global shipping lanes, and brought warnings that Beijing could use military force against the pirates based in Somalia.

The foreign ministry statement gave no details of how the crew was recovered. One of the pirates told Reuters on Sunday a helicopter had dropped a $4 million ransom payment onto the deck of the ship, opening the way to their release.

China sent three warships to Somali waters late last year with great fanfare after a ship carrying oil to China was attacked by pirates. But Chinese warships, like those from other countries, provide protection mainly in the narrow and dangerous Gulf of Aden, not the much larger Indian Ocean.

20091228

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has begun exporting its first 5 million litres of ethanol to the European Union, at an initial price of around 450 euros a cubic metre, officials from the Kenana Sugar company said on Monday.

Kenana, Sudan's largest sugar company, this year inaugurated the ethanol plant which aims to produce 65 million litres a year of the bio fuel.

"Yesterday a vessel carrying 5 million litres of ethanol went to Rotterdam," said company secretary Fareed Omer Medani.

"This has been purchased by the European Union," he said, adding by the end of February a further 20 million litres would be exported in four separate shipments.

Kenana's Managing Director Mohamed El Mardi told Reuters the price per cubic metre for the December shipment was about 450 euros FOB.

But he said prices for the four further shipments would vary, depending on the market.

"The prices are not fixed prices," he said. "For the five shipments we will have 5 different prices -- January/February prices are higher than in December."

Mardi said it was the first export of ethanol from Sudan, adding the shipments would continue regularly at 5 million litres every month.

20091228

ABUJA (Reuters) - The family of a Nigerian man who tried to blow up a U.S. passenger jet said on Monday they had lost contact with him while he was studying abroad and had reported his disappearance to security agencies two months ago.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

"His father, having become concerned about his disappearance and stoppage of communication while schooling abroad, reported the matter to Nigerian security agencies about two months ago and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago," the Mutallab family said in a statement.

"The disappearance and cessation of communication which got his mother and father concerned ... are completely out of character and a very recent development," said the family statement, which was sent to Nigerian media.

The media had quoted family members as saying his father had been uncomfortable with his son's "extreme religious views" and had reported him to the U.S. embassy in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and to security agencies.

Abdulmutallab began his journey to Detroit in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial centre, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before going through transit at Schiphol airport.

The son of a respected former banker, he is from a privileged background in Africa's most populous country, most of whose estimated 140 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Investigators in the United States are trying to confirm his claims that he has connections to al Qaeda.

LAGOS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The wife of former Nigerian Military President Ibrahim Babangida, Maryam, died on Sunday at the age of 61, after years of battling ovarian cancer.

Local media reported on Monday that Maryam died at the City Hope Hospital in California.

She had earlier been admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Le Conte Avenue.

The former first lady had been rumored to have died on Nov. 15.

NIAMEY, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja cast his ballot at the polling station No.1 of Niamey's Town Hotel in the municipal elections opened on Sunday.

The elections were envisaged by the Constitution resulted from the Aug. 4 referendum, which is considered unconstitutional by the African Union and the West African bloc ECOWAS. Both organizations have suspended Niger, saying President Mamadou Tandja is seeking the extension of his rule by illegal means.

Having voted, Tandja appealed to other voters to cast their ballots peacefully, just like what they had done during the constitutional referendum and the legislative elections held on Oct. 20.

"We hope that these elections are completed peacefully just like the rest and from now henceforth, Niger will be in a position of having advanced her democracy," he said.

Tandja noted the municipal elections were the last to be held in 2009 and that it was stipulated by the new constitution voted for by the Nigerien people.

He expressed hope that the people of Niger will choose men and women "who will govern our districts very well so that we can construct Niger."

Accompanying the president to the polling station were government officials and national deputies.

LUSAKA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- A civic organization has appealed to political parties in Zambia to encourage their members to register as voters following announcement by the country's electoral body that it will next year conduct a continuous voter registration exercise in readiness for the 2011 general elections, the Times of Zambia reported on Monday.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) last week announced that it would next year embark on a 90-day continuous voter registration exercise throughout the country in readiness for the 2011 general elections.

Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) Spokesperson Macdonald Chipenzi said political parties were key players in the voters' registration exercise and that they should not leave the task of mobilizing potential voters for registration to the government and civil society organizations.

He however said the political parties should conduct themselves in a way that would inspire people to register as voters in order to deal with the problem voter apathy experienced in past elections.

"The political parties should rise to the challenge and help encourage the potential voters to go and register as voters because that is the starting point for this democratic exercise," Chipenzi was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

According to Chipenzi, the current low voter turn-out could only be abated through the increased number of people on the voters' roll, hence the need to intensify the awareness for the forthcoming exercise.

NIAMEY, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The elections of municipal councillors went smoothly in the urban community of Niamey, Niger's capital, and in the interior of the West African country on Sunday.

Hassan Hama, the head of polling station No. 104 in Niamey ll district, told reporters that the voting was going on normally despite the low turnout in the morning.

"At the moment the voters have started coming in slowly, but we expect that from now until the end of the voting exercise, we shall have maximum voting," he said.

At the polling station No.116 within the same district, presiding officer Abdoul Aziz Boubacar said the voters were comingin dribs and drabs.

A slightly higher participation was reported at the polling station No. 46 in Niamey l district. "In the beginning, we had some fears, the people were coming in dribs and drabs but now it's all right," Abdelaziz said.

The same atmosphere was witnessed at Niamey lll district at the polling station No. 81. According to presiding officer of this station Moussa Marou, "voting is going on well and there are a number of voters who are still waiting outside."

In the other seven regions of the country, including Maradi, Zinder, Dosso, Tillabery, Diffa, Agadez, and Tahoua, voting went on in calm.

In all the constituencies, no major incident was reported at more than 19,000 polling stations across the country.

More than 6 million Nigeriens have been asked to go to the polls to elect councillors who are expected to lead the 266 districts in the country.

The polls coincided with the election of a member of parliament of the Tassara constituency, which was cancelled in October because of irregularities.

The vote came after Niger held a referendum in August and legislative elections in October. The West African bloc ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Niger, saying the steps are unconstitutional and aimed at extending President Mamadou Tandja's term of office.

LOME, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The facilitator in the inter-Togo dialogue, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, recommends the "one round" mode of election scheduled for Feb. 28, 2010, the pattern which is being challenged by the Togolese opposition, according to the Savoir news agency.

The opposition and the ruling party are out with guns blazing over the mode to be used during the election.

The United Forces for Change (UFC) and the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), the two main opposition parties, have been calling for a two-round mode of election, while the ruling Assembly of Togolese People (RPT) has been insisting on a one-round vote.

Compaore made the recommendation after talks of more than four hours on Sunday at the Kosyam de Ouaga 2000 presidential palace between the representatives of UFC led by Gilchrist Olympio, CAR led by Me Dodji Apevon and the RPT. The representatives of the Togolese government also participated in the discussions.

"President Compaore in his wisdom has recommended that the election be held in a peaceful environment and that we hold it within the constitutional provisions," spokesman Pascal Bodjona declared to the press.

The proposal by the facilitator was not well received by the representatives of UFC and CAR.

"We think that the talks are in the process of coming to an end but unfortunately, without consensus as we had wished," Apevon said.

Jean Pierre Fabre, the UFC secretary general, confirmed that his party will use all "legal means" in order to be "heard."

According to a source close to the talks, the political actors will be meeting again with the facilitator by mid-January in order to discuss practical issues about the organization of this election.

KHARTOUM, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chadian diplomat in Khartoum said his country would embark in banning any activity of the Sudanese opposition inside its territories in implementation of the security protocol inked by the two countries, UNMIS Radio Miraya FM reported Sunday.

The Chadian Consul in Khartoum Hussain Jeddah denied that there were camps for the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) inside his country, according to the report.

However, he attributed moves by some Darfurian armed movements inside his country to the wide border and the difficulty of controlling them.

The Chadian diplomat called for further monitoring the borders of the two neighbors, the report said.

Sudan and Chad signed a security protocol more than a year ago to control their borders and ban any activity by armed opposition groups in the two countries, but failed to implement it.

The two sides Friday agreed to revive the security protocol and decided to hold a bilateral meeting of military and security officials in the Chadian capital of N'djamena on Jan. 8, 2010.

The Sudanese-Chadian relations were repeatedly tensed as the two sides traded accusations of supporting the armed opposition groups in the two countries along their joint border.

LAGOS, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian federal government on Saturday expressed dismay over the report of an attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. airline.

This was made known in a statement issued in Abuja, the country's capital city, by the Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili.

"The Federal Government of Nigeria received with dismay the news of attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. airline," the statement reaching here said.

The Airbus 330 with 278 passengers on board took off from Amsterdam and was about to land in Detroit when the man allegedly attempted to detonate the device.

"We state very clearly that as a nation, we abhor all forms of terrorism," it said.

"The Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has directed Nigerian security agencies to commence full investigation of the incident," the statement added.

"While steps are being taken to verify the identity of the alleged suspect and his motives, our security agencies will cooperate fully with the American authorities in the on-going investigations," the statement said.

"Nigerian government will be providing updates as more information becomes available," it added.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says itis investigating the arrest of the Nigerian in the U.S. for being in possession of explosives in an aircraft.

Harold Demuren, NCAA's director general, told reporters in Lagos that the matter was being investigated.

"We are investigating it very carefully and we are watching the development," the official said.

The suspect, who was identified as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, has been described as a Nigerian by the U.S. authorities.

He was alleged to have boarded a KLM flight in Nigeria en route Amsterdam to Detroit. The airline claimed the connection in Amsterdam involved a change in carrier.

Security operatives in Lagos said they were meeting over the incident to determine whether the suspect was actually a Nigerian.

The securities officials said they would also investigate how the suspect was able to beat the security operatives with the item.

Delta Airline also said in a statement in Lagos that it was cooperating with security agencies over the incident.

The airline advised that all inquiries should be directed to law enforcement agencies investigating the incident.

"All media calls should be referred to the TSA on 877-632-7327," the airline said.

20091227

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There is no initial evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet was involved in a larger plot, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

But al Qaeda involvement is a "subject of investigation" in Friday's incident, U.S. homeland security chief Janet Napolitano said after U.S. authorities on Saturday charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, with attempting to blow up the plane by setting alight an explosive device attached to his body.

The suspect, who was being treated for burns at a Michigan hospital, was overpowered by passengers and crew on the Northwest Airlines plane from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

"Well, right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger. But obviously the investigation continues. And we have instituted more screening and what we call mitigation measures at airports," U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

Asked whether al Qaeda was involved in the incident, Napolitano told ABC's "This Week" program, "That is now the subject of investigation, and it would be inappropriate for me to say and inappropriate to speculate. So we will let the FBI and the criminal justice system now do their work."

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday authorities were looking at the possibility that Abdulmutallab had ties to al Qaeda in Yemen.

Abdulmutallab is due to make his first court appearance at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Monday in federal court in Detroit on a motion from prosectors to take a sample of his DNA.

Napolitano said U.S. authorities were reviewing current rules on who goes on official watch lists used to identify people who might pose security threats and was reviewing screening policies and technologies.

20091227

LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a U.S. airliner with high explosives had lived outside Nigeria for some time and returned only on the eve of the attempted attack, the Nigerian government said on Sunday.

"The man in question has been living outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day," Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the commercial capital, Lagos.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, a Delta-owned Airbus 330, as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on December 25 with almost 300 people on board.

Abdulmutallab, son of a well-respected former Nigerian banker, started his journey in Lagos, where he boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam before transferring to the Detroit flight at Schiphol airport.

"The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who is a responsible and respected Nigerian with a true Nigerian spirit, had earlier reported his concern about his son's activities to relevant American authorities," Akunyili said.

"The father has already expressed deep shock and regret over the son's action."

Akunyili said Nigeria had strengthened security at all its airports and its security agencies were working "hand-in-hand" with their international counterparts.

"We want to assure everybody that our airports are very safe," she said.

20091227

CAIRO (Reuters) - Three officials from the Palestinian group Hamas crossed into Egypt from Gaza on Sunday to discuss Israel's response to a proposed prisoner swap, a delegation official said.

The officials are expected to meet Egyptian security officials. They will later visit Syria for further discussions with Hamas leaders there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper on Sunday as saying no deal had yet been reached on a prisoner swap. He said he would hold talks in Egypt on Tuesday with President Hosni Mubarak to seek ways to promote Middle East peacemaking.

Egypt and Germany have been mediating a possible exchange of prisoners by Hamas and Israel. Under a proposed deal, Hamas would release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli army conscript held captive in Gaza for almost three years, for some 1,000 of the 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

On Wednesday, the German mediator delivered Israel's latest response to Hamas, whose leaders were now weighing it. Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel had ruled out releasing a handful of senior Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks on Israelis.

Tension between Israel and the Palestinians has risen in the last few days. On Thursday, Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli on the West Bank, and on Saturday Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians belonging to the Fatah movement, also on the West Bank.

20091227

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger went ahead with boycotted local elections on Sunday despite increasing international isolation of President Mamadou Tandja over his move to extend his rule over the Saharan uranium-producer.

The United States terminated trade benefits for Niger on Wednesday, a day after former army colonel Tandja's five-year term in office was originally due to have ended. In August Tandja amended the constitution to prolong his mandate.

Tandja told reporters after voting in the capital Niamey he hoped the vote would be peaceful. Members of the security forces voted on Saturday to enable them to guard voting stations and main transport routes on the main day of the poll.

"These elections are the latest step undertaken by the illegal and illegitimate rule of Tandja," the CFDR grouping of opposition parties and trade unions said in a statement urging voters to boycott the municipal vote.

Tandja and his allies already hold a comfortable majority in the national parliament and there is little chance of the local elections loosening his grip on power.

The U.S. sanctions were the latest in a line of measures taken by African neighbours, the European Union and others to punish Tandja for his power grab, which he argues was necessary to ensure important infrastructure projects are completed.

However analysts question the impact of such measures while Niger continues to see revenues from exports of uranium, used notably by France as a part of its reliance on nuclear power.

Separately, Nigerien media reported late on Saturday the last Tuareg rebel faction still bearing arms after an October peace deal with the government had surrended its weapons in the northern Agadez region, a key uranium-producing zone.

Although the move brings the prospect of an end to an insurgency that has killed 300 rebel fighters and some 80 government forces, Nigerien authorities are are still on alert in the region for activity by local allies of al Qaeda.

20091227

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would hold talks in Egypt on Tuesday with President Hosni Mubarak to seek ways to promote Middle East peacemaking.

"I believe we have an interest in moving the peace process forward in a variety of ways," Netanyahu told reporters at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu said he had requested the meeting with Mubarak after talks that Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, held in Israel last week.

"I intend to continue this important dialogue," he said.

Egypt and Germany are mediating a prisoner trade between Israel and Hamas under which the Islamist group, in charge of the Gaza Strip, would release captured soldier Gilad Shalit and Israel would free some 1,000 of the 11,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Two Gaza-based Hamas leaders, Mahmoud al-Zahar and Khalil al-Hayya, were headed on Tuesday to Syria via Egypt, a Hamas spokesman said. They planned to discuss with Damascus-based Hamas leaders Israel's response to a proposed swap.

Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel has ruled out releasing a handful of Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks.

Israel, the officials said, was also intent on barring between 100 and 120 Palestinian prisoners from returning to the occupied West Bank, which is close to Israel's main cities, and wants them to be sent to Gaza or abroad.

"At this stage there is no deal and it is not clear to me whether there will be one," a participant in Sunday's cabinet meeting quoted Netanyahu as saying.

20091227

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There are no signs that the incident in which a Nigerian man has been charged with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet bound from Amsterdam to Detroit was part of a larger plot, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

"Well, right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger. But obviously the investigation continues. And we have instituted more screening and what we call mitigation measures at airports," U.S. homeland security chief Janet Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

Napolitano also said there was "no suggestion" that authorities in Amsterdam had improperly screened the man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. She added that there was no "specific" or "credible" information to move him to a more stringent screening list.

The suspect was overpowered by passengers and crew on the Delta Air Lines plane from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.

20091227

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda involvement is a "subject of investigation" in Friday's incident in which a Nigerian man has been charged with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet bound from Amsterdam to Detroit, U.S. homeland security chief Janet Napolitano said on Sunday.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs, appearing on ABC's "This Week," also said the White House is reviewing U.S. security watch list policy.

The U.S. government created a record of 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community's central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, a U.S. official said on Saturday. But there was not enough negative data to put him on a "no-fly" list, the official said.

Asked whether al Qaeda was involved in the incident, Napolitano also told ABC's "This Week" program, "That is now the subject of investigation, and it would be inappropriate for me to say and inappropriate to speculate. So we will let the FBI and the criminal justice system now do their work."

Gibbs said the administration was reviewing "how can we revise watch-listing procedures going forward to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information that might be gathered somewhere going to the very highest levels of security in government."

20091227

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday called on Egypt to stop building a steel wall along the Gaza border that could obstruct tunnels which provide a lifeline for the blockaded enclave.

Nasrallah told a crowd of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim marking the Ashura religious ceremony that Egypt should be condemned if it does not halt the wall building.

Tensions between Egypt, a predominantly Sunni country, and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran, have been running high since last year when Nasrallah accused Cairo of complicity with Israel in its siege of the Gaza strip.

"In addition to the siege there has been news about (building) a steel wall..to terminate the thin veins which are giving some life and some hope to Gaza," he said.

"We call on the government in Egypt and the leadership to stop the wall and flooding the tunnels and to end the siege otherwise it should be condemned by all Arabs and the Muslims," he said.

Egypt is trying 26 men suspected of links with Hezbollah and accused of planning attacks inside the country. Hezbollah denies it had plans for attacks inside Egypt and says one of the men is a Hezbollah member and that he and up to 10 others were trying to supply military equipment to Hamas-run Gaza.

Egyptian officials have said steel tubes were being placed at several points along the 14-km (8-mile)-long border, but they did not specify their purpose.

Palestinians fear a steel barrier, deep underground, would limit or end smuggling through hundreds of tunnels operating in defiance of a three-year-old Israeli-led blockade.

20091227

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A helicopter dropped a $4 million ransom payment on Sunday on to the deck of a Chinese coal ship hijacked by Somali pirates in mid-October, a pirate source on board the vessel said.

The De Xin Hai and its 25 crew were carrying about 76,000 tonnes of coal from South Africa to Mundra in India when it was seized in an audacious attack by the gunmen some 700 miles east of the Horn of Africa.

Heavily armed sea gangs from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms hijacking vessels in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.

Patrols in the area by warships from several nations only appear to have forced the pirates to hunt further from shore.

"A helicopter dropped the ransom money on to the ship. We have received $4 million," Hassan, one of the pirates on the De Xin Hai, told Reuters by telephone to cheers in the background.

"We hope to disembark in a few hours," he added.

"The crew is safe and, although they will not have their freedom for a few more days, they are all happy now."

The chaos in the waters off Somalia is a reflection of a civil war on land that has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.

20091227

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian authorities are making progress in negotiations with al Qaeda gunmen holding three Spaniards and a Frenchman hostage, a source close to the talks said on Saturday.

The source, who asked not to be named, said a former Tuareg rebel who had been involved in previous hostage negotiations was involved in the case but it was still impossible to say when the foreigners may be freed.

There was no immediate information on the fate of two Italians seized last week in Mauritania. Their capture, after the kidnapping of the Spaniards and the Frenchman, has deepened fears of gunmen seizing foreigners for ransoms in remote parts of West Africa, where groups linked to al Qaeda operate.

"Since (al Qaeda's) announcement that they are holding (the hostages), we have activated our network ... and what we can say is that negotiations are under way and are advancing," said the official who is close to the talks.

"Beyond that, whether they will be freed in the hours or days to come, no one can say," he added.

The source said that Lyad Ag Ali, a former rebel who is now Mali's consul in Jeddah and had been involved in the freeing of 32 Europeans kidnapped in 2003, was proof that talks were taking place at the highest level.

The three Spaniards were part of an aid convoy travelling to southern Senegal when they were seized in northern Mauritania in November. The Frenchman was kidnapped near the eastern Malian town of Menaka last month. The Italian pair were seized in eastern Mauritania while travelling towards Mali.

The hostages are believed to have been moved to Mali's remote north, where a mix of smugglers, bandits and groups linked to al Qaeda's North Africa wing, known as AQIM, are known to operate.

Mali's main bargaining chips are to release members of AQIM it is currently holding in prison or make concessions to Ag Ali's former Tuareg rebels, who have links with but are not directly allied to the Islamists.

However, analysts say that financial motives are central to the hostage-taking and the latest spate of kidnappings has been fuelled by Western governments paying money for its citizens seized in the region over the last few years.