Algeria in talks to free missing tourists

European tourists who disappeared in the Sahara Desert in February are alive, a spokesman for the Algerian government said yesterday. Authorities were in talks with their captors, he added.

Mohammed Guerrout said that he did not know the condition of the group of 31 travellers and refused to comment on the identity of the captors. The tourists were believed to have been travelling to southern Algeria to an area known for its archaeological sites when they disappeared. The region also has a reputation as a haven for arms smugglers and drug traffickers.

"The tourists are indeed alive, and negotiations are taking place to win their release," Mr Guerrout said.

The tourists were in seven groups travelling in four-wheel-drives or on motorcycles. None had hired guides. Last week, an Algerian official said that the tourists – 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss travellers, one Dutch person and a Swede – were being held in Illizi region, near the Libyan border.

The official said that the Algerian army had tracked them down. About 5,000 Algerian troops and 300 local guides were brought in to find them. The official would not say whether the captors belonged to an Islamic extremist group. But he called them "terrorist groups", the term used in Algeria to refer to Islamic insurgents.

There has been speculation that Islamic rebels fighting Algeria's military-baked government might be behind the disappearances.