Ankara - News that three German mountain climbers kidnapped on Mount Ararat by separatists from the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) was relegated to the inside pages of Turkish newspapers on Thursday, with reports of an al-Qaeda connection to an attack on the US consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday instead dominating the media.

Turkey's highest-selling newspaper Hurriyet relegated the hostage story to a single paragraph on page 18 concentrating on the angle that the PKK guerrillas had said they were kidnapping the three mountaineers to protest recent German government activities against the PKK.

Most other Turkish newspapers also reported little on the hostage taking but all concentrated on the claim by the PKK guerrillas that they would release the three in "a few days' time."

Lars Holger Renne, 33, Martin Georg, 49, and Helmut Johann, 65, all from Bavaria, were taken hostage late Tuesday night when a group of five PKK guerrillas raided a camp at 3,200 metres forcibly waking a group of 13 German climbers.

The other 10 climbers and their guides were left unharmed and returned to the town of Dogabeyezit on Wednesday.

Agri Governor Mehmet Cetin told reporters on Wednesday that an extensive operation had been launched to rescue the hostages. (dpa)