Three Red Cross workers who were kidnapped in the border region between Georgia and Chechnya have been set free.

The three workers -- one French, one Italian and one Georgian -- had been working with refugees fleeing the war in Chechnya.

They were reported missing just over a week ago, and their abandoned vehicle was found soon afterwards on a mountain road, some one-hundred-and-fifty kilometres north-east of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The Russian Itar-Tass news agency said the kidnappers had made no political or financial demands; it said that they had offered two days ago to free their hostages if the authorities promised not to prosecute them.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service