Tripoli - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered the release of three journalists, including two AFP employees, held by his forces since the weekend after an appeal from AFP chairperson Emmanuel Hoog, his spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“The leader of the revolution (Muammar Gaddafi) received an appeal from the French press agency, the CEO Mr Emmanuel Hoog, and the leader basically asked the Libyan state and government to release these journalists and indeed they are going to be released within the next hour or two,” Mussa Ibrahim said.

Earlier Tuesday, Hoog appealed to Gaddafi to free the three, seized by Libyan troops near the eastern city of Ajdabiya on Saturday.

“I have the honour to ask you to restore their liberty, in the name of that same freedom of expression and information that you refer to so often,” Hoog wrote.

A driver hired by Dave Clark and Roberto Schmidt, who went missing in eastern Libya last week, said they were arrested on Saturday along with Getty photographer Joe Raedle.

Clark, a reporter, and photographer Schmidt had not been heard from since Friday evening.

“We are certain that you will hear this message regarding these three colleagues, two of whom work for one of the largest global news agencies, whose reputation for quality and independence, notably in the Arab world, is unquestionable,” Hoog wrote.

Also on Tuesday, Hoog and AFP director of information Philippe Massonnet met French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Culture and Communication Minister Frederic Mitterrand, to raise the issue of the journalists' detention.

Mitterrand assured AFP of his support, saying in a communique afterwards: “All imaginable procedures to come to their aid and to allow them to do their job... are under way.”

The minister said he “implores the Libyan authorities to respect all guarantees attached to the exercise of their profession.”

Driver Mohammed Hamed told AFP that on Saturday morning he took Briton Clark, Schmidt, who is of joint Colombian and German nationality, and American Raedle from Tobruk towards Ajdabiya, where Gaddafi loyalists have been battling eastern rebels.

A few dozen kilometres from Ajdabiya they encountered a convoy of military jeeps and transport vehicles. They turned around, but were intercepted by the soldiers who caught up with them and forcibly detained them, the driver said.

Four soldiers forced them from their vehicle at gunpoint as Clark said “Sahafa” - Arabic for “journalist”.

They were then ordered to kneel on the side of the road with their hands on their heads before being bundled into another vehicle and driven off to an unknown destination.

Paris-based Clark, 38, has been in Libya since March 8. Schmidt, 45, who normally works out of AFP's Nairobi bureau, arrived in the country on February 28.

Raedle is 45 years old.

“They were treated very well indeed. They were checked for the health and the well-being, and they were brought to Tripoli,” Ibrahim said on Tuesday.

Since the February 15 start of the insurrection against Gaddafi's regime, a number of foreign journalists have been arrested in Libya. - Sapa-AFP