PARIS, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A French air force plane, "probably a Falcon 900", is charged of bringing back the two French journalists freed earlier Tuesday, the French Defense ministry said on Tuesday.

    "It will probably be a Falcon 900, which seats 14 passengers, and it will leave late tonight, or perhaps more likely early Wednesday morning from Villacoublay (air base)," Defense Ministry's spokesman said late Tuesday.

    French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and the families of the two journalists are likely to board the Falcon to take them back.

    According to the Defense Ministry, "it is probable that the twoformer hostages return to France on Wednesday afternoon at the airbase of Villacoublay, in the southwestern suburb of Paris.

    French President Jacques Chirac, who just started Monday his vacation in Morocco, expressed his joy over the news and announcedhis immediate return to Paris to greet the two journalists.

    The two journalists, Christian Chesnot, 37, of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot, 41, of Le Figaro, were kidnapped along with al-Jundi on Aug. 20 south of Baghdad by a group calling itself the "Islamic Army of Iraq". The group demanded that the French government revoke the headscarf ban in public schools. France rejected the demand.

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