(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

 
(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

   BAGHDAD, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- A French Muslim delegation met Thursday here with senior clerics of the Association of Muslim Seculars, in an effort to secure the release of two kidnapped French reporters.

   The French Council for the Muslim Faith (FCMF) delegation arrived in Baghdad earlier Thursday when the fate of the two captives remained uncertain after the deadline for the French government to retract a scarf ban expired.

   The meeting, between the delegation and senior clerics in the Sunni Muslim association, was held in Um al-Qura Mosque in Baghdad's western suburb.

   The delegation flew in from Amman, where it met French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who returned to Amman Wednesday night after a 24-hour visit to Qatar to rally support in Arab world to free the hostages.

   Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Paris daily Le Figaro went missing in Iraq on Aug. 20.

   On Aug. 28, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed it had kidnapped Malbrunot and Chesnot.

   The militant group first gave Paris 48 hours, then extended itfor another 24 hours, to rescind its controversial ban on wearing Islamic headscarves in state schools and universities.

   The kidnapping drew a worldwide chorus of condemnation and France has rejected the captor's demand.

   France, an opponent to the US-led war on Iraq and pre-war sanctions on the country, was stunned by the kidnapping, one of tactics employed by insurgents bent on unsettling the newborn Iraqi government and the reconstruction efforts in the war-ravaged country.  Enditem