Nigeria 'hostage pictures' shown

A Nigerian rebel group has released photographs that appear to show seven of the nine foreign oil workers recently kidnapped in the Niger Delta.
The pictures show men, believed to be the hostages, sitting on a bench with masked gunmen behind them.

The militants - who are campaigning for the rights of the local Ijaw people - have demanded more local control over the region's oil revenues.

Their attacks have led to a 20% drop in Nigeria's oil exports.

The foreign workers - three Americans, two Thais, two Egyptians, a Briton and a Filipino - were seized last Saturday while laying a Shell pipeline.





Earlier this week Nigeria's government said it had assembled a team to negotiate their release.

The nine hostages were working for Willbros, a US engineering firm which is a Shell sub-contractor, in the Forcados river, 50km (30 miles) west of the oil port city of Warri, when they were abducted.

The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it launched Saturday's attacks to avenge a series of helicopter strikes on local Ijaw villages.

The Nigerian military said it targeted barges being used by militants to smuggle stolen oil.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports.