IRAQ: "LARGE" RANSOM PAID FOR RELEASE OF GERMAN HOSTAGES SAYS AMBASSADOR

Berlin, 4 May (AKI)j - The German government handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for over four months and set free on Tuesday, Iraq's ambassador to Germany, Alaa al-Hashimi, has alleged. "Regarding the payment of a ransom, I don't know, but I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambasssador told German's ARD public television network, stressing that the Iraqi government had played part in the men's release.

Germany's foreign minister, Franz Walter Steinmeier has refused to divulge any details on the release of Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Braeunlich, 32, who arrived at the German capital, Berlin's Tegl airport on Wednesday, looking pale and exhausted but apparently in good health. "We are very happy to be alive," said Braeunlich.

However, al-Hashimi's claim is likely to trigger further debate on the wisdom of paying for the release of hostages. While the official policy of Britain and the United States is that Western governments should refuse to negotiate with kidnappers, Germany, France and Italy are believed to have paid million dollar sums for the release of kidnapped nationals.

It quickly became apparent that a criminal gang that had seized Nitzschke and Braeunlich, who were kidnapped outside their workplace on 24 January near Baji in northern Iraq. At the time of the men's capture, there was speculation that Germans were being targeted, because Berlin, unlike Washington or London, paid ransoms.

A month before the two engineers were kidnapped, German diplomats admitted the government had paid five million dollars for the freeing from captivity of a German woman working in Iraq, Susanne Osthoff. According to a report by the German weekly magazine Focus, Nitzschke and Braeunlich's kidnappers had demanded a 12 million dollar ransom for their release.