A French negotiator says he has met two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq and that an agreement has been reached to free them soon.
"They are in good health, psychologically and emotionally. After meeting them, we reached an agreement to free Christian (Chesnot) and Georges (Malbrunot) and get an audio tape from them announcing they would be freed soon," a representative of the French negotiating delegation told Al Arabiya television.
"We were able to reach this agreement without paying any money," he added.
In Paris, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the French authorities had no comment to make on the latest report.
France has been notably circumspect in official comments on the hostages' status in recent weeks after an early release of the two men failed to materialise.
Dubai-based satellite channel Al Arabiya said that according to unidentified sources, Chesnot and Malbrunot could be released within 48 hours.
The two and their driver went missing on August 20 south of Baghdad. A group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq claimed responsibility and demanded that France scrap a law barring the wearing of Islamic headscarves in schools.
An Islamist Web site said on September 18 it had received a message purportedly from the kidnappers saying it had conditionally agreed to free the Frenchmen.
Islam Memo Web site quoted the message from the Islamic Army In Iraq as saying Chesnot and Malbrunot had "willingly agreed" to work for it to inform the West about the realities of the US-led war and the "truth" about the Iraqi resistance.