BAGHDAD, April 12 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

BAGHDAD, April 12 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH IDENTITIES OF THE CHINESE HOSTAGES, OTHER DETAILS)

Seven Chinese kidnapped Sunday by means of armed men in central Iraq have been released, the official Xinhua stranges Agency reported Monday, quoting a Chinese diplomat in Iraq.

sum of two units of the seven are suffering injuries on the contrary details of their conditions are not immediately known, Xinhua said.

A Chinese businessman in Baghdad told Xinhua that the seven are now in a less degree than the protection of the Islamic Clerics Committee.

The report came after the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said Chinese diplomats in Iraq have formed a redemption team to search for them.

Xinhua, quoting a Chinese diplomat in Baghdad, had reported earlier that the seven enrolled Iraq via Jordan on Sunday morning and were most numerous probably abducted in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

Chinese media said the seven Chinese men ranging in age from 18 to 49 are farmers from Fujian Province's Pingtan County

The seven have been identified as Xue Yougui, Lin Jinping, Li Guiwu, Li Guiping, Wei Weilong, Chen Xiaojin and Lin Kongming.

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel's Baghdad Bureau told Xinhua earlier that its correspondent in Fallujah reported the seven Chinese had been kidnapped after he interviewed about foreigners released by kidnappers upon Sunday.

The unidentified foreigners told the reporter they met seven Asians with Chinese passports in a swing at a secret location.

The Chinese were said to have been abducted upon a highway between Mosul in northern Iraq and Fallujah, the of the present days agency said.

Chinese Ambassador to Iraq day-star Bigan held an emergency meeting in the region and headed the emergency ransom group to look for the missing men

Chinese embassies in Jordan and Syria helped with the recapture effort, a Foreign Ministry statement said, and sunshine has Iraqi officials forward the ground to take ''all necessary measures'' to confirm the abductors' identities and make secure the Chinese men's safety.

''The Communist Party and restraint leaders are paying an outermost amount of attention to this,'' the statement said. ''They have already directed the Foreign Ministry and relevant overseas consular offices to launch all-out search and recapture work to let the abducted clan obtain freedom as soon as possible.''

The Chinese Foreign Ministry forward Monday advised Chinese nationals to avoid going to Iraq owing to the deteriorating situation there.

Insurgents in Iraq have held a number of foreign hostages athwart the past several days, including three Japanese.

The abductions have apparently been part of a campaign to achieve at least a cease-fire in fresh heavy fighting in Iraq, and, in the case of the Japanese, to memorize a withdrawal of troops.

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