The security services in Georgia say a Lebanese businessman, who was taken hostage in June, has been released.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said he was freed following negotiations with his abductors.

Reports in Georgia had said they were demanding a ransom of $500,000, but the Interior Ministry officials said no money had changed hands.

The Lebanese businessman is believed to have been held in the Pankisi Gorge, near the border with Chechnya, where two Spanish businessmen, who were abducted last September, are also thought to have been taken.

Spanish radio quoted Georgian officials as saying the two Spaniards are alive.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service