Tel Aviv - The Israeli military said Thursday night it was checking reports that a soldier had been kidnapped, after a woman soldier said she saw two civilians forcibly pushing another soldier into a vehicle near Ben Gurion Airport, south-east of Tel Aviv.

Police set up roadblocks in central Israel and the West Bank, to carry out spot checks on vehicles, and the military was checking to see if all soldiers could be accounted for.

The Palestinian Ma'an news agency quoted a previously unknown group, calling itself the "Al-Quds (Jerusalem) army" as saying it had kidnapped a soldier.

A statement issued by the group and quoted by the news agency said it would provide details later. There was no confirmation of the claim from any official source.

Palestinian militants have vowed to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips in attempts to free extremists held in Israeli jails. One soldier, Gilad Shalit, snatched during a cross-border raid in June 2006, is still being held somewhere in the Gaza Strip as negotiations for his release drag on.(dpa)