Today's Date:

For the past ten days, two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, have been missing in Iraq.

For the past ten days, relentlessly – and I mean relentlessly, we have been deploying all our efforts to secure their release.

With the assistance of all our posts in the area, our Embassy in Baghdad has explored every avenue, sought every bit of information, made every possible contact. We have, of course, done this discreetly because we know, from experience, that this discretion is essential for security.

At this crucial juncture, at the request of President Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and after a number of Government meetings which took place yesterday, I have come to the region to coordinate these efforts. With the same objective, I have asked the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with a number of senior civil servants, to be in Baghdad as of this morning to strengthen the action of our Embassy.

Indeed, the day before yesterday, the abductors of our two compatriots presented France with an ultimatum. These two journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, are doing their job and doing it in Iraq in order, first hand, to explain to the world the real situation on the ground and tell people about the Iraqi people's difficult living conditions.

These decent men have always shown their understanding for the people of Iraq and their sympathy for the Arab and Muslim world.

I call for their release in the name of the principles of humanity and of respect for the human being which are at the very heart of the message of Islam, at the very heart of Muslim religious practice. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. It respects human life.

Hour after hour, in France of course and throughout the world, very many leading figures and Muslim organizations are calling for our compatriots' release. Their kidnapping is incomprehensible to all those who know that France, land of human rights, is a land of tolerance and respect for the Other. That's the true nature of our country. Our Republic ensures the equality and protection of all religions within the framework of our law, which is the same for all.

And Islam nowadays is the second religion in France. Five million Muslims freely practise their religion there. The French Republic's impartiality towards religions is part of our identity. This impartiality guarantees total freedom of worship for each and every one. It protects the believers, it ensures the cohesion and diversity of the French nation.

France has always opposed the vision of a clash between the West and Islam. In Iraq, in Palestine, the Middle East and throughout the world she champions justice and dignity for the peoples. France, with other countries, is in the vanguard of the defence of international law. Everywhere, she defends and will continue to defend the sovereignty of the peoples.

For all these reasons, but first and foremost because respect for human life is sacrosanct, I solemnly call for the release of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot.

Ladies and gentleman, all the contacts I'm going to make here in Egypt and possibly in other capitals, are designed to explain this reality which I have just described to you, this truth about French society, based on tolerance and respect. These contacts are designed also to establish all the dialogues which can help secure the release of our compatriots. And finally, I wish through this effort to ensure that this call for our two compatriots' release is heard as strongly and in as many places as possible./.