PARIS, Jan. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Three French citizens kidnapped in Haiti have been released on Friday evening, the French radio broadcaster France Info reported on Saturday.

    The hostages were released without the payment of a ransom the captors had initially demanded, the radio quoted Haitian police as saying.

    The three hostages, including a priest and a nun on a humanitarian mission, were kidnapped Wednesday by a group of armedmen who claimed a high ransom, according to the Haitian police andthe local UN office.

    They were seized while traveling in a car in the suburbs of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

    The kidnapping occurred on a road between the airport of the capital and a gang-controlled slum.

    According to UN spokesman David Wimhurst in Haiti, there were 162 reported kidnapping cases in Haiti last month, and has seen 37 so far in January.

    A wave of kidnappings has plagued the former French colony, where crimes flourished after the toppling of former President Jean-Bertr and Aristide in February 2004. Enditem