Reports conflict about hostages' fate

CAIRO, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- An Egyptian official Tuesday said 19 tourists abducted in Egypt were released, but Egypt's official news agency said negotiations continued.

"They have been released, all of them, safe and sound," Gheit said Tuesday before his meeting in New York with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "It was a group of gangsters around the Libyan-Sudanese-Egyptian borders. That is a thousand miles west of the River Nile."

However, Mena, Egypt's official news agency, said negotiations were still under way to secure the release of the hostages, al-Jazeera reported Tuesday. Al Jazeera said it was unable to confirm the hostages' release.

The tourists -- five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian -- were traveling to Gilf al-Kebir, an area known for prehistoric cave paintings, when they were grabbed Friday while camping near the Sudanese border and taken into Sudan, Egyptians officials said. The eight Egyptians were guides and drivers.

Germany's government had taken the lead in negotiating the hostages' release, Egyptian officials said. Germany's Foreign Ministry said only that it had formed a "crisis team" on the abduction, Die Welt reported.