Germany negotiating with kidnappers of tourists

ASWAN, Egypt — German officials have established direct contact with kidnappers of a 19-member tour group after days of trying to negotiate through mobile phone calls between one of the captives and his wife, Egyptian and Sudanese officials said Wednesday.

The kidnappers, who snatched the 11 European tourists and 8 Egyptian guides on Friday during a desert safari in Egypt, have taken their captives across the border into Sudan. Sudanese troops have located them and are keeping watch on their position, but are not moving against them for fear of endangering the hostages, a Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Germany, five of whose citizens are among the captives, has been negotiating with the kidnappers, who have demanded up to $15 million in ransom, according to Egyptian officials.

Until now, negotiations were taking place through two phone calls a day between the tour company's Egyptian owner, who was among those kidnapped, and his German wife, who lives in Egypt, an Egyptian security official said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the talks.

The wife has been staying at the German Embassy in Cairo, according to Italian press reports. But until now there had been no sign the Germans were speaking directly to the kidnappers.

But the Egyptian security official said Wednesday that German authorities had established direct contact. The contacts were also reported by the Sudan Media Center, a news agency with close links to the Khartoum government. Neither gave details on how the communications were taking place.

Germany has been silent on any negotiations, refusing to even confirm that it is conducting them.

The identity of the kidnappers remains a mystery. They are believed to be desert tribesmen. Sudan said Tuesday it believes they are Egyptians. In one of the initial calls to his wife, however, the tour operator reportedly described the kidnappers as "African" in appearance.

The five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian, and eight Egyptian guides and drivers were abducted while visiting the Gilf al-Kebir, an isolated plateau some 550 miles (885 kilometers) southwest of Cairo in Egypt's Western Desert. The site is little visited, with only a few hundred adventure tourists a year making the grueling desert journey, drawn by the location's dramatic desert scenery and the rich troves of prehistoric art in the plateau's numerous caves.

Sudan says the kidnappers have been located in the desert of northwestern Sudan, about 15 miles from the Egyptian border.

"We are now in remote surveillance (of the kidnappers) but we are not planning to storm the place or threaten the lives of hostages," Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Youssef told The Associated Press. "No military action is considered at all."

It was the first such abduction of tourists in Egypt, a country that was plagued in the 1990s by Islamic militant bombings and shooting against tourists. The militant violence was largely suppressed a decade ago.

Egyptian officials have underlined that the Gilf al-Kabir kidnapping was not connected to terrorism, but was by "criminals" seeking ransom.

The isolated region around the Gilf is a crossroads for nomadic tribes in Libya, Sudan and even Chad, and lies on routes used by drug smugglers. It has seen a few previous robberies of tourists, according to tour operators. But the abduction of such a large group — and their removal across the border to Sudan — is a dramatic escalation.