AMMAN, Jordan: French Muslims have called for the immediate release of a French reporter who pleaded for her life in a videotape released this week.

“We call for the immediate release of Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanun As-Saadi (her Iraqi interpreter)," vice president of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM) Mohamed Bechari said in Amman.

Aubenas, a reporter for the French daily Liberation, disappeared in Baghdad on January 5 with her Iraqi interpreter. In the videotape, she appealed specifically for the intervention of a self-styled mediator long disowned by the French authorities, but officials and family alike suggested the plea had been made under duress.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called on Aubenas's abductors to communicate "only with official French services".

“Abductions are not part of our Arab and Muslim traditions, particularly when the victim is a woman who should be well treated… Arab and Muslim public opinion will never forgive such an irresponsible act,” Bechari said.

Bechari was among a CFCM delegation who visited Baghdad in September to try to secure the release of French reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were finally freed in December four months after their abduction.

As French politicians bickered over the best way to secure the release of Aubenas more than two months after her abduction, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was freed after a month-long hostage ordeal in Iraq.

But her newspaper revealed that the release efforts had nearly ended in tragedy when Sgrena was wounded by US fire as she was being brought to safety. An Italian intelligence agent, who had been in involved in the negotiations for her freedom, was killed in the shooting on the convoy, the paper added.

Italy has demanded explanations from the United States.