French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was to gather his top ministers on Wednesday for talks on the situation of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq for nearly three weeks, Raffarin's aides said.

The talks, due to begin at midday (1000 GMT) after a morning cabinet meeting, were aimed at providing the ministers with an update on the situation, the aides said.

Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot, Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot and their Syrian driver were kidnapped in Iraq on August 20 by the so-called Islamic Army in Iraq.

The shadowy group demanded that Paris rescind its ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious insignia in state schools, but the law went into effect last Thursday as planned.

On Monday, a statement purportedly from the kidnappers was posted on an Islamist website, giving France 48 hours to accept three new conditions for the journalists' release.