BAGHDAD, Jan 23: Eight Chinese hostages freed in Iraq have been handed back to the Chinese authorities, a diplomat said on Sunday, ending 24 hours of jitters and uncertainty about their whereabouts.

The release of the men, all migrant workers kidnapped Tuesday on their way home from a construction project, had been confirmed the day earlier but Chinese officials had been unable to make contact with them until now.

"We saw them, they are safe and well," the diplomat said. An AFP reporter caught a glimpse of the eight men, who appeared in good health, as they were being escorted by Chinese officials in the Iraqi capital.

According to the state Xinhua news agency, the men, aged between 18 and 40, will leave soon for China. The embassy expressed its "appreciation to all sides that had made efforts to get their release."

Footage broadcast on television had showed each of the eight dazed-looking Chinese hostages in an arid rocky landscape shaking hands with a captor whose face was covered by a traditional Arab he address.

The man thrust out his hand to tell them the direction to leave and the men one-by-one strode out of the picture, apparently towards their liberty. In the hostages' home island of Pingtan off the south eastern coast of China, relatives wept with joy when the pictures emerged. Xue Jinjiao, the mother of 19-year-old Wei Wu, one of the youngest among the hostages, broke into tears when seeing footage of her son, the Beijing News said.

"Her smile now is bigger than all her smiles of the past 10 years added together," Wei's younger sister told the paper. Iraqi Deputy President Rowsch Nuri Shaways, currently on a visit to China, said he was "very delighted" to hear the news of the release of the eight, according to Xinhua.

"(The relationship between) Iraq and China will have a splendid prospect," he was quoted by Xinhua as saying. The captors reportedly said China had promised not to send more of its nationals to Iraq. -AFP