Sarkozy Seeks Release Of Charity Workers

French President Nicolas Sarkozy departed early Sunday for Chad to discuss the case of 17 Europeans held in connection with an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children, the Elysee presidential palace said.

The Europeans - among them nine French citizens - were arrested late last month when a charity calling itself Zoe's Ark was stopped from flying the children from eastern Chad to Europe, where the group said it intended to place them with host families.

Sarkozy will meet with Chadian President Idriss Deby in the capital, N'Djamena, to discuss "the situation of our compatriots and the other European citizens being prosecuted" on kidnapping charges, said a presidential palace statement.

Sarkozy, who was traveling with France's junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, was expected to arrive in N'Djamena at around 2 p.m. local time.

Zoe's Ark maintains its intentions were purely humanitarian and that it had conducted investigations over several weeks to determine the children it was taking were orphans.

However, France's Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the group's claims that the children were orphans from Sudan's western Darfur region, where fighting since 2003 has forced thousands to flee to Chad and led directly or indirectly to the deaths of more than 200,000 people.

Aid workers who interviewed the children said Thursday most of them had been living with adults they considered their parents and came from villages on the Chadian-Sudanese border region.

Those detained include three French journalists and the crew of the plane the group planned to use to take the children to France. The crew included Spaniards and a Belgian pilot.

Deby said on state television Thursday that he hoped the journalists and the flight crew would be freed soon.

Sarkozy also called last week for the journalists to be freed in the shortest possible time.

French media reports Sunday suggested Sarkozy could bring the three journalists home aboard his presidential plane.

A report on France Info radio said the French leader could make a stopover in Madrid on his way back to Paris, possibly to bring the Spanish flight crew home.

Sarkozy is expected to travel to the United States later this week to visit President Bush at the White House.

Sarkozy's two-day visit for formal talks will also feature dinner at the White House and a trip to George Washington's home in Mount Vernon.

Discussions will focus on NATO's battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Bush's hope to host an Arab-Israeli peace conference later this month.

This will be Sarkozy's first visit to the capital since he took office in May although he did visit the president at the Bush family home in Maine during a summer vacation to the U.S.

It's also the French leader's first trip to the U.S. since news of his divorce. When the visit was announced, the first question from reporters was, "Is he bringing a date?"