Two European journalists have been released by Somali kidnappers, reports from agencies said on Sunday, citing a regional governor.

British correspondent Colin Freeman and Spanish photographer Jose Cendon were set free after weeks of captivity, according to Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Bari in the northern Puntland region.

The same official said early last month that two local reporters working for the foreign journalists were behind the kidnapping.

The journalists were abducted in late November when they prepared to fly home after covering the rampant piracy off northeastern Somalia.

The governor pledged a "hot pursuit" of the captors who were believed to be hiding in the hills around Bossaso, the commercial capital of the semiautonomous state of Puntland.

No group claimed responsibility for the abduction, nor were any specific demands made known from the captors.

The governor said there will be a press conference on the release of the two foreign journalists.

The region has become a hotbed of kidnappings of foreigners and piracy around its coast.

Several other foreigners, including a journalist from Canada and another from Australia, are still being held hostage in Somalia. Local gangs who take foreigners hostage for ransom often treat their captives well in expectation for the large ransom payment that eventually leads to the release of the hostages.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2009)