Qaeda's N.African wing frees 2 Spanish hostages: TV

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's north African wing has freed two Spanish hostages as part of a deal involving the release of a militant, Al Arabiya television said on Sunday.

The release of the pair was linked to Mauritania's repatriation to Mali of a militant who had been convicted of the kidnapping of three Spanish aid workers, including the two hostages, the station said.

It gave no details of the release.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais cited government sources as confirming the release of the two hostages, although a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he could not provide official confirmation.

A Spanish airplane was ready to fly to the area, although the exact handover spot was not known, El Pais said on its website.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had said it was behind the kidnapping of the three Spaniards in Mali last November. It freed one of them, Alicia Gomez, in March.

The group sought a $5 million ransom and the release of imprisoned Islamist fighters for the release of the other two, El Pais reported in March.

Officials in Mauritania and Mali had declined to comment on whether the extradition of Omar Sid-Ahmed Ould Hamma, alias Omar Sahraoui, to his home country earlier this month was linked to efforts to free the two remaining Spanish hostages, Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual.

AQIM has said that Spain is one of its targets because it is an ally of the United States and part of NATO.

Last month it killed a 78-year-old French hostage, Michel Germaneau, after a raid in the Sahara desert involving French troops failed to free him.

France said it had staged the raid because his captors had given no proof he was alive and had not engaged in talks.

But AQIM's leader, Abdelmalek Droudkel, also known as Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud, said in an audio recording issued after the raid that the group had been negotiating on Germaneau's release.

(Reporting by Firouz Sedarat; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Madrid; Editing by Kevin Liffey)