Chirac: Reporters stay out of Iraq
(CNN) -- French President Jacques Chirac has warned journalists in France to stay out of Iraq, because their safety cannot be guaranteed.
Chirac's warning at a private reception on Friday came after a French newspaper reporter, Florence Aubenas, and her Iraqi interpreter in Baghdad disappeared, said Laurence Auer, deputy spokeswoman for the French leader.
The French newspaper Liberation said it was treating "with great caution" news that its Baghdad correspondent, Aubenas, and her translator are "in good health" somewhere in Iraq.
On its Web site, Liberation cited Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that Friday night, three masked men in Balad, north of Baghdad, told two Iraqi journalists -- one an AFP employee -- that "the journalist and the person with her are in good health."
AFP said it was impossible to verify the information.
Liberation reported Thursday that Aubenas had not been heard from for more than 24 hours -- not since she and her interpreter left their hotel in the Iraqi capital Wednesday morning.
A Liberation article said French, Iraqi and American authorities had been notified.
Aubenas arrived in Baghdad on December 16.
The newspaper described her as "a top reporter" and said she has covered events in Rwanda, Kosovo, Algeria, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as several major trials in France.
Two French journalists who were held by an insurgent group for four months in Iraq were released December 21 and taken back to France.
