French President Jacques Chirac has made a fresh appeal for the freedom of two French hostages on the 100th day of their captivity in Iraq.
Mr Chirac urged the captors to choose "the path of humanism" and free Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot.
The journalists were taken on 20 August while driving to the city of Najaf, and last reportedly appeared in a video on 3 October in apparently good health.
The French press has run a continuous campaign for their release.
Mr Chesnot and Mr Malbrunot are now the longest-held Western hostages in Iraq.
Campaign praised
"The moment has come to return to the path of humanism and give the two hostages back their freedom," Mr Chirac said from a summit of Francophone nations in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Earlier Mr Chirac said he had no new information about the men but said "everything possible" was being done to secure their release.
Mr Chirac praised the conduct of both the men's families and of journalists.
"If [the hostages] return, as I think and hope, naturally, I am sure that they will owe it in large part, not to the actions of some, but to the... behaviour of their families and their fellow journalists," the president was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Journalists have organised frequent events to commemorate the plight of their colleagues.
Mr Chesnot, 37, worked for Radio France Internationale and Mr Malbrunot, 41, worked for the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.
Hopes for their imminent release have been dashed several times.
Co-captor speaks
They were taken with their Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Jundi, who was found during the recent US-led assault on Falluja.
Mr Jundi will make his first public comments on their abduction at a news conference in Paris, AP news agency reported.
Their captors, the Islamic Army in Iraq, initially demanded that France scrap a law banning Muslim headscarves from being worn in schools - a demand shunned by France.
They are then reported to have requested a ransom.
The last clue to the men's whereabouts came when an Egyptian hostage was released from captivity on 13 November.
He said he had heard French being spoken in the neighbouring room while being held in Latifiya, a rebel-held town south of Baghdad, French news agency AFP reported.