Tel Aviv - The Israeli military conducted checks late into the night Thursday after an eyewitness said she saw a soldier being kidnapped near Ben Gurion Airport, south-east of Tel Aviv.

Israeli media reported close to midnight that all soldiers were accounted for and there was no indication that a kidnapping had taken place.

The Palestinian Ma'an news agency had earlier in the evening 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 militant groups have previously issued claims that later inspection revealed to be false.

The eyewitness account of a kidnapping had come from a female soldier in the early afternoon, who said she saw two civilians forcibly bundle another soldier into a vehicle.

Police set up roadblocks near the airport, bringing central Israel to a halt for several hours, and were also checking all vehicles crossing into the nearby West Bank.

At the same time, the military instituted a procedure to account for every soldier, including reservists on active duty. The roll-call took several hours, as many personnel had already left their bases for the start of the Israeli weekend.

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)