France rejected Thursday conditions demanded by Somali Islamist rebel for releasing a French agent held hostage since July 14, local media reported.

"It is a government that was founded in Djibouti with the support of a majority in Somalia," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on France Info radio.

Kouchner denied France was supporting an illegal government, describing the claim as "completely false".

"I have met President Sharif (Sheikh Ahmed) and his ministers on two occasions, and they represent Somalia," Kouchner added.

On Thursday, the al-Qaida-inspired militant group Shebab, who is holding the second agent, issued conditions to the French government for the release of the agent.

The radical group asked France to stop supporting the Somali government, to withdraw French personnel and advisors from the country and French naval from the Somali coastal waters.

It also demanded the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers from Somalia.

The two French agents were captured by the Islamists in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia on July 14. One of them escaped last month and returned to France.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2009)