"As promised, we will no longer take hostage in future attacks on oil facilities," said Jomo Gbomo, a self-described spokesman for the Movement of Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in an e-mail message to Xinhua.

    However, he added, any persons found on facilities attacked by our fighters in future "will have themselves to blame as we have severally warned oil workers to steer clear of the Niger delta."

    Gbomo also confirmed that they had no hand in the Friday kidnappings of eight foreign oil workers in Bayelsa state.

    Eight expatriate oil workers were abducted from Bayelsa State's Bulford Dolphin oil rig in Bilabiri, Ekeremor Local Government Area by yet to be identified militant youths in early hours of Friday to a location yet to be determined.

    The kidnapped, six Britons, one American and one Canadian working for a Shell Oil servicing company Peak Petroleum, were picked out of 84 crew members on the rig for their alleged economic value given their countries of origin.

    Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa or the sixth largest oil exporter in the world with a daily crude output of some 2.5 million barrels per day, but its oil output has been disrupted many times by the attack on oil workers as well as production and transportation facilities by militants, who demand compensation for the destruction on environment of the oil-rich south by oil companies. Enditem