"The two Chinese hostages were liberated after tribal mediation and government pressure," a tribal source said.

Yemen's interior ministry confirmed the release of the Chinese pair, saying they "are in good health." The two were seized along with two Yemeni drivers and two soldiers.

All six have been released, according to the local official, who confirmed that the "men are now with representatives of the local authorities in Shabwa province," 750 kilometres (460 miles) from Sanaa.

"The kidnappers have released the hostages following assurances by the authorities to look into their requests and a commitment from tribal mediators to follow the matter," one of the mediators told AFP.

The kidnappers, said to belong to the Laqmush tribe, were calling on authorities to punish a policeman who they claim wounded a fellow tribesman by shooting him at a checkpoint.

China's official Xinhua news agency quoted China's ambassador to Yemen, Liu Denglin, as saying the two oil workers "are now in a safe condition."

He said they were "freed through the efforts made by every side" and were in Ataq, the capital of Shabwa.

China had urged Yemen to work quickly to rescue its two citizens who are employees of the Zhongyuan Oil Field Co.

"We have launched an emergency mechanism and requested the local authorities to rescue our citizens as soon as possible," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters earlier.

On Monday, Yemeni security forces launched an operation in Shabwa to free the hostages.

Provincial Governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told the defence ministry's 26sep.net news website that the operation was underway in the Hada area of the Haban district.

Local dignitaries were also engaged in mediation efforts to secure the release of the hostages, the governor had said.

Armed men "seized the two Chinese experts from their car in the Mater region" of Shabwa province, a tribal source told AFP on Sunday.

Yemen's powerful tribes frequently carry out abductions of foreigners to try to secure bargaining counters in disputes with the central government.

Of the 200 or so foreigners seized in Yemen over the past decade, most have been released unharmed.

Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi authorities announced that two young German girls held hostage for nearly a year in the rugged north Yemen mountains had been rescued, while the fate of their parents and an infant brother was unknown.

The girls were part of a group of seven Germans, a British man and a South Korean woman seized in Yemen's northern mountains in June last year.

The bodies of two German women, described at the time as nurses and Bible students, and the South Korean were found soon after the abduction, raising fears for the safety of the remaining hostages.

The fate of the Briton is also still unknown.

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