Frankfurt  - A correspondent for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) has been taken captive by armed militiamen in the conflict region in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the newspaper confirmed Thursday.

The FAZ confirmed an earlier report in the Belgian daily Le Soir that correspondent Thomas Scheen, 43, had fallen into the hands of Mai-Mai militias.

The Frankfurt-based FAZ said Scheen was seized on Tuesday as he "got caught between the fronts" in the eastern Congo region.

The FAZ said all the responsible authorities were working to gain Scheen's release.

According to Le Soir, the Mai-Mai militia was making Scheen's freedom conditional on rebel general Laurent Nkunda withdrawing his forces from the region. The paper said Scheen was captured near the village of Kiwanja, an area where there has been heavy fighting between the Mai-Mai militias and Nkunda's forces.

The FAZ said Scheen has been the paper's correspondent in sub- Saharan Africa since 2000, and has been based in South Africa since early 2005. (dpa)