PARIS, Sept 2 (AFP) - As armed captors released 26 women and children Thursday from the southern Russian school where hundreds of others were still held, the United Nations and governments were united in a chorus of condemnation of the hostage-taking that has shocked the world.
The UN Security Council issued a tough condemnation late Wednesday and demanded the immediate release of the 300 people, including 132 children, held by extremists wearing belts laden with explosives.
"The Security Council condemns in the strongest terms the heinous act of taking hostages at a secondary school in the town of Beslan," said the Council's president for September, Spanish ambassador Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo, in a presidential statement.
"The Security Council demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack," it said.
"The Security Council urges all states ... to cooperate actively with the Russian authorities in their efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of these terrorist acts.
"The Security Council reaffirms that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, whenever and by whomever committed," said the statement.
The statement, adopted by all 15 Council members after lengthy discussions, did not link the hostage-takers to any group.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry, Cecile Pozzo di Borgo, on Thursday "strongly condemned" the hostage-taking, saying "no cause could justify" it.
"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of these hostages."
She added: "France underlines that the Chechen conflict can only be properly resolved through a political solution leading to away out of the spiral of violence, in respect of the territorial integrity of the Russian federation."
Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio condemned the hostage-taking as a "barbarous act" in a message sent to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"The terrorist attacks which the Russian Federation have been the target off, which culminated with the barbarous taking of hostages at a school in Beslan, in North Ossetia, cause the strongest indignation and deserve an energetic condemnation," he wrote.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said: "No argument can justify taking children hostage and threatening to kill them," he said. "Our thoughts are with the hostages and their families and we hope that this hostage crisis will end quickly and without bloodshed."
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in a telephone call to Putin, also offered to send a mobile hospital to the scene.
Turkey, which has in the past been accused by the Russian authorities of turning a blind eye to the alleged presence on Turkish soil of Chechen rebels and of failing to prevent its citizens from joining the secessionists' ranks, dubbed the hostage-taking an "unacceptable act of terrorism", after Putin postponed a planned trip to the country.
"We forcefully condemn this form of terrorist action, which can in no way be justified and which harms the life of innocent people and even children," said a written statement issued by the foreign ministry.
"This is an unacceptable act," it said, adding that terrorism was the "biggest threat against peace and security" in the world.