Talks are still going on to free the 11 Europeans and 8 Egyptians captured by four masked bandits over the weekend near the border with Sudan, according to the Egyptian Tourism ministry.

Five Italians, five Germans and one Romanian were driving in four utility vehicles across the sparsely populated and arid zone called Gilf al Kebir, near the border with Sudan, which is known for its beautiful desert sights and prehistoric cave paintings; they were accompanied by two tour guides, four drivers, and the director of the tour company, all Egyptian.

At one point during the weekend, the precise moment still unknown, they were ambushed and kidnapped by four masked men. The tour company owner called his wife on a satellite phone, telling her that he was being held for ransom by five men who spoke English with "an African accent." However, according to a statement given to state TV by Mustapha Tawfiq, the Aswan chief of police, the perpetrators were four Egyptian men wearing masks.

The unpopulated region in which the tourists were travelling is often crossed by African tribesmen, and smugglers from Libya, Sudan and Chad, and it is also close to the conflict zone of Darfur, which has given rise to notorious gangs of armed bandits feared for their hijackings and robberies. It is therefore most likely that the kidnappers were not terrorists but rather bandits out for profit.

A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, confirmed this when he stated that the kidnappers had contacted them with a ransom demand of $6 million. He added that "This is an act of banditry not of terrorism."

Earlier reports given in New York by the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit before the opening meeting of the United Nations General Assembly that the hostages “have been released, all of them, safe and sound," have been proven to be false.

Kidnappings of westerners have happened before in the northern part of Africa, especially in Algeria and the Sudan-Libya region, with governments being forced to pay ransom for their release.

The Egyptian government has been struggling to re-establish the tourism industry, one of the main sources of income for the poor country, since the 1997 militant raid that killed 63 people, tourists mostly, in Luxor. The country’s tourism has since made a comeback from the tragic event that almost shattered it. Tourism accounts for $7.6 billion of income from 11 million visitors in 2007 alone, and the government is desperate to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, lest the country lose credibility once more. Perhaps that accounts for Minister Gheit’s rather… hasty declaration.

There have also been reports during the past years of Al-Qaeda raids on tourists, precisely intended to undermine the country’s economy, and topple President Hosni Mubarak’s government.