PARIS, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin declared Tuesday that French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was to go to pick up the two freed French journalists, who would be back in France "in all probability" late on Wednesday.

    "I just ask Michel Barnier to leave at night (from Tuesday to Wednesday) to go to pick up our compatriots and watch over the good conditions of their return to France in the daytime tomorrow," said Raffarin without specifying where the foreign minister is to go.

    To the question when exactly the two French hostages were to beback, Raffarin said "in all probability late tomorrow, but we are surely extremely prudent upon all the return conditions."

    The two journalists, Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro, were kidnapped along with al-Jundi on Aug. 20 south of Baghdad by a group callingitself the "Islamic Army of Iraq". The group demanded that the French government revoke the headscarf ban in public schools. France rejected the demand. Enditem