Abducted Japanese man still held by Yemeni tribesmen

SANAA (Reuters) - A Japanese man held hostage in Yemen was not released late on Tuesday because of a last-minute dispute between Yemeni tribesmen and mediators, a provincial official said on Wednesday.

The same official had told Reuters on Tuesday night that the tribesmen had handed the hostage to mediators and that the man, an engineer abducted in an area northeast of the capital Sanaa, was expected to arrive soon in Sanaa.

"There seems to have been a disagreement at the very last minute, which stopped the mediators from reaching Sanaa with the Japanese man," the official said. "We expect the issue to be resolved on Wednesday."

The kidnappers seized the engineer, who is working on a Yemeni government project, to press Sanaa to release jailed relatives, according to provincial officials.

It was not immediately clear if Yemen had met the demands, but the abduction was likely to add to the security concerns of foreign firms, especially those developing the oil and gas sector of the Arabian Peninsula country, which is battling a Shi'ite rebellion in the north.

Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, is also fighting al Qaeda militants and facing a rise in separatist sentiment in the south.

The man was kidnapped in the town of Arhab about 60 km (37 miles) northeast of Sanaa.

Tribesmen often kidnap Western tourists in Yemen to put pressure on the government to provide better services and improve living conditions.

Most abducted foreigners are released unharmed, but in July three women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners were found dead. The killings coincided with a rise in separatist and militant tensions in a country whose instability has alarmed Western countries and neighboring Saudi Arabia.

One analyst said at the time the killings bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda but no claim of responsibility has been made.

(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam; writing by Tamara Walid; editing by Tim Pearce)