Arab League Chief Appeals For Release Of French Hostages

CAIRO, Aug 30 (AFP) - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa called Monday for the release as soon as possible of two French journalists being held hostage by Islamist kidnappers in Iraq.
"I urge everyone to resolve this matter as rapidly as possible and to free (the hostages) as quickly as possible to spare us the consequences which we could do without," he said at a press conference after meeting French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
Mussa said Arab League officials were in permanent contact with Iraqi officials over the abduction of the two newsmen by a group demanding that France revoke a ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools.
Barnier is in Cairo at the start of an emergency mission to try to save the lives of the two journalists.
The kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Army of Iraq, issued late Saturday a 48-hour hour ultimatium for France to meet its demands, although the government in Paris insisted Monday it would not change the law.