Chirac tells French journalists not to go to Iraq

President Jacques Chirac urged journalists yesterday not to go to Iraq after the disappearance of a French reporter which caused fears of a new hostage crisis.

Florence Aubenas, who works for French newspaper Liberation, and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun Al Saadi have not been seen since leaving a Baghdad hotel on Wednesday morning. It is not clear whether they have been kidnapped.

"We're without news of Florence Aubenas today and we are concerned," Mr Chirac said in a New Year speech to journalists gathered at the president's Elysee Palace.

"At the current time, the safety of war correspondents cannot be assured in Iraq. That's how it is. French authorities formally advise against sending journalists to that country."

A French diplomatic source said on Thursday Ms Aubenas, 43, could have been killed, injured, kidnapped or arrested. Her disappearance has raised the prospect of France facing a new hostage crisis in Iraq, just over two weeks after two of its journalists were freed after being held by Iraqi militants for four months.

"We are terribly worried," Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "The situation in Iraq is such that nothing can be ruled out."

Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said it was not clear whether Mr Aubenas had been kidnapped.

"We are worried because we have no news, but we don't know for sure. So as I'm speaking, there are several hypotheses and I don't know which is the correct hypothesis," Mr Barnier told LCI television in an interview.

"We have visited the hospitals. We are looking for her."

Police sources in Baghdad said on Thursday a female French journalist had gone missing on Wednesday on the road from Baghdad to Taji, just north of the capital. They said she may have been kidnapped.