The two French journalists held in hostage for 124 days and freed on Tuesday in Iraq spoke of their experience for the first time to journalists after their arrival at the Villacoublay military airport near Paris at 1730 GMT on Wednesday.

"We're fine. We have never lost hope. We lived through a difficult experience, sometimes a very difficult one. We were two and we managed to make our kidnappers that we are not pro-American," said Georges Malbrunot, 41, reporter of Le Figaro daily.

Christian Chesnot, 37, of Radio France Internationale, said however "we understood that the kidnappers didn't want to kill us right away."

"We are very happy to be home because when you're a hostage youdon't know what will happen," Malbrunot answered in English, adding "It was a very tough situation when you are surrounded by people with guns, wearing masks."

He said they had not suffered from tortures to which some otherhostages in Iraq have been subjected.

He said they were held because the insurgent group, the IslamicArmy in Iraq, believed they were "not big fish, (but) good fish."

The Arab-language Al-Jazeera satellite TV on Tuesday quoted theIslamic group saying in a statement that the two journalists were released "because they were proven not to spy for US forces, in response to appeals and demands from Islamic institutions and bodies, and in appreciation of the French government's stand on the Iraq issue and the two journalists' stand on the Palestinian cause."

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Wednesday morningdenied that the French government paid ransom for their release, while refusing to unveil the details of the efforts to gain the release.

The two journalists freed by their abductors Tuesday left Baghdad Wednesday morning on board a French air force plane C-130 Hercules plane for Cyprus, where they were greeted by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and some of their relatives before flying to Paris on board a French air force's 14-seater jet Falcon900.

They arrived at about 1730 GMT Wednesday at the Villacoublay military airbase near Paris, where they were greeted in the drizzle by French President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, waiting on the tarmac along with other officials and their families.

Source: Xinhua