On Monday, President Nicolas Sarkozy has informed the reporters that France is very sure that five French hostages are not dead whom an al-Qaeda regional offshoot detained in Niger.

He has said to the reporters that they are hoping that the five French hostages are not dead and they are very much sure of it. He has also reminded that, the two French journalists who were seized in Afghanistan for more than a year were found alive.

There have been holdings in September of Niger hostages with a Togolese and a Madagascan colleague from the West African country's uranium mining town of Arlit. After that, they were sent across the border into Mali.

Later Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has stated about the kidnap. On Friday, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has said in a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera that a supplement of France's soldiers in Afghanistan are trusted about the release of French hostages.

The satellite channel has supposed that was consulting the French journalists held in Afghanistan was being consulted by the Al-Qaeda chief.