Cairo - Nineteen people kidnapped by an unknown group of masked men in the Egyptian Western Desert have now been transferred to Libya, the Arab satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya reported on hursday, days after they were taken from Egypt to Sudan.

The kidnapped group consists of eleven tourists - five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian - plus eight Egyptian travel company staff.

The travellers had been on a desert safari of Egypt's Gilf Kebir region in the Western Desert when they were snatched by a gang of masked men on September 19.

Cairo - Nineteen people kidnapped by an unknown group of masked men on September 19 in the Egyptian Western Desert have now been transferred to Libya, the Arab satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya reported on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry told the channel that the group, which includes five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian tourist, had been brought across the Libyan border.

The group were previously thought to be at a location 25 kilometres inside Sudan after having been snatched near the Gilf Kebir region in the Egyptian desert.

Cairo  - The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Wednesday that 2007 was a record year for the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) but warned against a drop by at least 10 per cent in 2008.

In its World Investment Report 2008, released Wednesday in Cairo, the UN agency said that crisis in world financial markets and the economic slowdown will lead to the decline of FDI flows in 2008, after last year's 30-per-cent surge.

Cairo  - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a pink granite head, believed to Portray that of King Ramses II, in the Nile Delta town of Tell Basta northeast of Cairo, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said on Wednesday.

The 76 cm-high head belongs to a colossal statue of the king that once stood in the area, SCA chief Zahi Hawas said, adding that researchers discovered the statue 1.5 metres below ground.

"This discovery is important because it may indicate that the excavators are close to the ruins of a major temple of Ramses II in the area," Hawas said.

The nose of the statue was broken, and the beard that was once attached to the king's chin was missing.

Cairo - Conflicting reports on the identity of the group that kidnapped 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians in Egypt's Western Desert on Friday continued to circulate Wednesday.

An Egyptian government spokesman said the kidnappers were from Djibouti, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

But other Egyptian officials were being quoted as saying one of the kidnappers came from Chad, while his three accomplices came from Sudan.

The Al-Jazeera news channel, meanwhile, quoted unnamed Egyptian officials as having said the group was from Chad. An official at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the kidnappers were all Egyptians.

Cairo  - The ruling Fatah faction is looking to current Cairo peace talks to end the split among the Palestinians, a senior Fatah official said Tuesday.

Nabil Shaath, heading the Fatah delegation to a meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Soleiman, said he hoped the talks would produce agreement on a viable government that eventually would lead to presidential and legislative elections.

"Now everybody is waiting for a government that will put an end to the blockade of Gaza, open the borders and be accepted by everybody," said Shaath.