PARIS, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The two French journalists taken hostage in Iraq for 124 days and freed on Tuesday arrived Wednesday at about 1730 GMT at the Villacoublay military airbase near Paris.

    In the company of French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier who went to pick them up in Cyprus, the two journalists were greeted in the drizzle by French President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, along with other officials.

    Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro, were kidnapped along with their Iraqi driver 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.

    They were released "because they were proven not to spy for US forces, in response to appeals and demands from Islamic institutions and bodies, and in appreciation of the French government's stand on the Iraq issue and the two journalists' stand on the Palestinian cause," the Arab-language Al-Jazeera satellite TV quoted the Islamic group as saying in a statement. Enditem