Lebanese former president Amin Gemayel on Friday denied an Israeli newspaper's report that he had said two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas in July are still alive.

A statement released by his office in Beirut said that Gemayel "completely denies making any statement to any Israeli media organization on any topic".

The statement said that the former Lebanese president had no information about the two Israeli soldiers' condition.

Earlier, Israel's Maariv newspaper quoted Gemayel and a second Lebanese politician in an interviews as saying that the two soldiers were alive but they offered no other details.

The Israeli two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid, which triggered a 34- day war between the group and Israel in which 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

Source: Xinhua