KUWAIT CITY, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A source from the Kuwaiti
Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that a Kuwaiti and an Egyptian
were held by Iraqi troops at the border while accompanying a
Venezuelan delegation, Kuwait's official KUNA news agency reported.
   It is the responsibility of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait
Observation Mission (UNIKOM) to ensure the release of the two
detainees, the source was quoted by KUNA as saying.
   He added that the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry is also in contact
with the UNIKOM and the International Committee of the Red Cross to
ensure the release of them.
   A UNIKOM statement earlier said that the Iraqi troops detained a
Kuwaiti and an Egyptian who were accompanying a Venezuelan
delegation when a UNIKOM officer who was driving the delegation's
car entered the Iraqi territories by mistake.
   The delegation's goal is to visit the post of the Venezuelan
unit serving with the UNIKOM on the Kuwaiti side of the border, the
statement said.
   It added that contacts between the UNIKOM chief and Iraq
resulted in the release of the Venezuelan nationals, but the Iraqi
troops refused to release the Kuwaiti and Egyptian nationals.
   There is a demilitarized zone (DMZ) between Iraq and Kuwait. The
DMZ is 10 kilometers long on the Iraqi side and five kilometers on
the Kuwaiti side.
   The DMZ was set up in 1991 after the U.S.-led coalition drove
Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and ended Baghdad's seven-month
occupation of the small oil-rich Gulf neighbor.  Enditem