A channel of communication has been opened to negotiate the release of two Italian aid workers who were kidnapped in Somalia on Wednesday, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.
At present all that is known is that Iolanda Occhipinti, 55, and Giuliano Paganini, 64, are ''well''.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has appealed to the information media to ''restrain from issuing any unfounded reports which could compromised the security of the hostages''.
Occhipinti and Paganini, who were in Somalia working for the NGO Cooperazione Italiana Nord-Sud (CINS), are believed to have been taken hostage by a bandits seeking a ransom and not by a political force involved in Somalia's civil war.
Although there has been no official confirmation, the channel of communication to negotiate their release is believed to be through tribal elders in the area.
The Italians were kidnapped from their organization's residence-headquarters in Awdigle, some 65km south of Mogadishu, together with a local member of their NGO, Abderahman Yusuf.
Aside from the Italians, a British and a Kenyan aid worker are hostage of bandits in Somilia after being kidnapped April 1 275km south of the Somali capital.
