Romanian President Traian Basescu said Sunday his government neither negotiated Romania's foreign policy nor paid a ransom to secure the release of three Romanian journalists and their guide in Iraq.

The operation to free the hostages was "handled 100 percent by the Romanian secret services" and he would elaborate the release in two weeks, the president said in a televised speech Sunday night.

The president also said the jounalists were unharmed and they were expected to be back to Bucharest Monday.

Newspaper reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, TV reporter Marie-Jeanne Ion, cameraman Sorin Miscoci and their guide Mohammed Monaf were kidnapped on March 28.

The abductors, a group calling itself Maadh Bin Jabal, had set April 27 a deadline for the four persons' execution unless Romania, a staunch supporter of the United States, withdrew its 800 troops from Iraq.

In a videotape aired Sunday on Al-Jazeera television, the kidnappers said they decided to free the hostages in response to an appeal by influential Saudi preacher Salman Bin Fahad al-Ode and Muslims in Romania.

The release was greeted with joy in Bucharest. Ion's father told the Mediafax news agency "it is a huge joy for us. We have been praying for them for these 53 days."

Miscoci's mother said "I escaped from this continuous nightmare. "

Around 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since April last year, with some released and some executed.

Several foreigners, including French journalist Florence Aubenas and her guide Hussein Hanun, were still in the captivity of abductors in the war-torn Iraq.

Source: Xinhua