TOKYO: Hostage 'safe,' ambassador says

A Japanese university student abducted by drug traffickers in Iran is safe and efforts to win his release have "intensified," Iran's ambassador to Japan said Thursday.

Satoshi Nakamura, who is in his 20s, was taken hostage in October near the ancient capital of Bam in Kerman province, southeastern Iran.

Ambassador Seyed Abbas Araghchi told a news conference at the Japan National Press Club that Nakamura, a fourth-year student at Yokohama National University, was "quite safe and negotiations to release him ... have been intensified."

Araghchi, who assumed his post earlier this month, also said that Nakamura had been taken to a third country, making "efforts to release him more difficult." He would not elaborate.(IHT/Asahi: March 28,2008)