French President Jacques Chirac sent his foreign minister to the Middle East on Sunday to try to win freedom for two journalists held in Iraq by militants demanding France end its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools.

"Today, the whole nation is united because the lives of two Frenchmen are at stake," Chirac said in a televised address on Sunday evening.

"Backed up by this national unity, I solemnly call for the release of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. Everything is being done and everything will be done in the coming hours and days to achieve this."

Shortly after Chirac laid out France's position, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier flew to Cairo on a Middle East tour meant to tap regional contacts and win the journalists' release.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, which last week said it killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, on Saturday gave Paris 48 hours to rescind the headscarf ban, without saying what would happen if it does not.

Chesnot worked for Radio France International (RFI) and Malbrunot for daily newspapers Le Figaro and Ouest France. They disappeared en route from Baghdad to Najaf on Aug. 20, the day after Baldoni was taken hostage.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin defended France's separation of church and state, the principle behind the headscarf ban due to apply when schools reopen on Thursday, and Muslim leaders denounced the kidnapping as foreign interference.

Flanked by about a dozen Muslim leaders after their consultations earlier on Sunday, Villepin strongly defended France's secular system and said the separation of church and state united citizens rather than divided them.

"French people of all origins and all religions are united in support of our compatriots Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot," he said. "Together, we ask for their release."

Source: Agencies