PARIS, Jan. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar said affirmed here Thursday that "the Iraqi government is doing everything in its power to obtain the release of the French journalist and her gu ide.

    "I expressed our sadness, in the name of the government and the Iraqi people, over the kidnapping of this innocent journalist," Yawar declared after meeting with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac.

    It is for the first time the political authority to use the words "kidnapping" and "release" in the case of Florence Aubenas, 43, journalist of French daily Liberation, who went missing last Wednesday in Baghdad with her Iraqi assistant Hussein Hanun al-Saadi.

    "This is another example of blind terrorism that makes no distinction between human beings, religions, gender or nationality," Yawar said.

    "The Iraqi government is in the process of doing everything in its power to obtain the release of this French journalist and her guide," he added.

    Chirac for his part told Yawar about his "worry" about the journalist, said Chirac's spokesman Jerome Bonnafont to reporters, noting that the French authorities had no news from the journalist in the past eight days.

    Chirac thanked his Iraqi counterpart for the Iraqi authorities' help in this painful circumstance, said the spokesman.

    French officials, following French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier's example, refused to speak of kidnapping as to the disappearance of Florence Aubenas and her assistant.

    "As I talk to you, I would not speak of a kidnapping. We're trying to find them. We're mobilized, we're seeking information, we've made all the right contacts," Barnier said in an interview with French private RMC radio on Tuesday. Enditem