Nigeria Told Not to Use Force to Free Oil Workers

British diplomatic officials today cautioned Nigeria against using force to free four oil workers kidnapped in the south of the country.

Consular staff met Nigerian authorities in the state of Bayelsa, in Nigeria's oil-rich delta region, to discuss how to secure the safe release of the foreign workers - a Briton, an American, a Bulgarian and a Honduran - who were seized on January 11 near a Shell oil field.

"The safety of the hostages is paramount to us, and we would not wish to see military action that would endanger their safety," the British high commission spokesman, Graeme Bannatyne, said.

"Consular officials will remain in the Niger delta until the conclusion of this situation," Mr Bannatyne said.

Militants have launched a string of attacks on Nigerian oil installations, cutting the country's crude exports by nearly 10%.

They are demanding $1.5bn (£849m) in compensation from Shell for environmental damage, and that the government release two figureheads of their ethnic Ijaw group, the militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and the former Bayelsa governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

Mr Dokubo-Asari was detained in September on treason charges, while Mr Alamieyeseigha faces extradition to Britain, after jumping bail in the UK on charges of money laundering.

Mr Alamieyeseigha apparently dressed up as a woman and used a forged passport to skip bail on charges of laundering £1.8m.

The day after the kidnapping, a major Shell pipeline leading to its Forcados export terminal was blown up. Shell has evacuated hundreds of workers from the delta since the unrest began.

The kidnapped workers are employed by two companies contracted by Shell in the delta: the British firm, Ecodrill, and the US company, Tidewater. Nigeria, Africa's leading oil producer, exports 2.5m barrels of oil a day and is the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports.