Italy confirms couple kidnapped in Mauritania

Italy's foreign ministry confirmed an Italian couple has been kidnapped in Mauritania and said it had activated all political and diplomatic channels to secure their release.

In a short statement posted on its Web site late on Saturday, the ministry asked for media discretion "to guarantee the safety of the hostages and favour a positive solution to the case".

Italian media named the two as 65-year-old Sergio Cicala and his 39-year old wife Philomene Kabouree, who is from Burkina Faso and has dual Italian nationality.

Their bullet-riddled vehicle was found in eastern Mauritania near the border with Mali in an area where armed groups with links to al Qaeda are known to operate, diplomats said on Saturday. The couple's driver, from Ivory Coast, was also missing, a local journalist said.

Cicala''s daughter Alexia made an emotional appeal on Italian television, urging Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to quickly establish contact with the kidnappers.

"I want to know what is my father''s condition, I have had no news since Wednesday," she told Sky Italia.

She said the couple, who live in Sicily, was travelling to Burkina Faso to visit Kabouree's 12-year old son.

Local diplomats said the attack appeared to be the latest in a string of kidnappings in the region.

Malian security forces have been put on high alert by their Mauritanian counterparts, who warned that gunmen may attempt to smuggle their hostages across the border, Malian government officials said.

Armed groups, some of them with links to al Qaeda's wing in the region, operate across the vast, remote desert zone, which includes eastern Mauritania, northern Mali and southern Algeria.

Analysts say local gangs, generally involved in the smuggling of cigarettes, weapons, drugs and people, could also become involved in kidnapping foreigners and selling them on to al Qaeda.

Although never officially confirmed, experts say ransoms are often paid, but a British hostage was executed in Mali by the group earlier this year.

Three Spanish aid workers disappeared in Mauritania last month after an attack on their convoy. Malian security sources believe the trio is being held by al Qaeda's north African wing in Malian territory.