French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Thursday appealed to the group holding a French engineer in Iraq to release him, saying that France had no troops in the country, according to DPA. "Nothing justifies keeping Bernard Planche in captivity," Douste- Blazy said in his written appeal. "I again call on the kidnappers to release our compatriot without delay. I remind you that France has no military presence in Iraq and that it has always urged that full sovereignty be restored to the country." On Wednesday, in a video broadcast by the al-Arabiya satellite channel, a previously unknown Iraqi group claimed responsibility for the December 5 kidnapping of 52-year-old Planche. An announcer for the channel said the group, which called itself the Monitoring Brigade for Iraq, had demanded that the French government end what it called "its illegitimate presence in Iraq" or it would kill Planche. Commentators in France on Thursday suggested that the group's awkward political statements were only a cover for a ransom demand, and that the only motivation for the abduction was money. Planche was working as a water projects engineer for a U.S.-based NGO called AACCESS when he was abducted from in front of his Baghdad residence. --SP 22 20 Local Time 19 20 GMT
