Cairo  - Eleven tourists kidnapped in southern Egypt were released Monday, Egyptian Tourism Minister Zuheir Garana said.

The five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian had been kidnapped while on a Safari near the city of Aswan and had been taken to Sudan.

Garana said that the tourists were released without payment of any ransom.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit, meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, confirmed the hostages had been freed and were in good condition.

"They have been released, all of them, safe and sound," Gheit said, calling the kidnappers a "group of gangsters" near the border area of Libya, Sudan and Egypt.

The tourists were being transported from Sudan to the Egyptian town of Abu Simbil, 300 kilometres south of Aswan, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. (dpa)