Journalists Kidnapped By Colombian Rebels

A British reporter and an American photographer have been kidnapped by Colombian rebels who said yesterday that their release would depend on undefined "political and military conditions".

Ruth Morris and Scott Dalton were "retained" on Tuesday by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the guerrilla group said in a statement on a pirate radio station.

The pair, who were on an assignment for the Los Angeles Times, were seized at a rebel roadblock in Arauca state. They were led from their taxi wearing hoods, after being told they were being taken to meet a rebel commander, their driver, Madiel Ariza, said yesterday.

Mr Ariza said the rebels had told him to leave their encampment the next day, and that the ELN would turn over the journalists to the Red Cross within a day or two.

But an ELN statement broadcast last night said the journalists were still being held and would be freed in due course and only "when the political and military conditions permit".

The ELN said the pair had arrived in the guerrilla stronghold without their permission.

"Arauca state has been declared a war zone by the American government and the Colombian state _ the National Liberation Army is on a war footing and is [acting] in the defence of the people of eastern Colombia," the statement said.

A group of 70 US special forces personnel are in Arauca to train local troops to protect an oil pipeline from bombings.

The radio broadcast said the ELN was prepared to guarantee the journalists' lives but that it depended on the army's response.

Morris, a freelance journalist, who has dual British and US nationality, is based in Bogota, has written for several publications including the Guardian.

Dalton, 34, worked for the Associated Press for nine years in Central America and Colombia, before becoming a freelance photographer.