European governments imposed a virtual news blackout on Monday on fresh efforts to secure the release of 14 European tourists held hostage by Algerian militants in the Sahara desert for more than five months.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog arrived in Mali on Sunday for a second visit in four days to the West African country as a flurry of diplomatic activity raised hopes the nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch would be freed.

"We are prepared to bring our people home, but I can't tell you anything. I don't know how long it will take," Chrobog told reporters, echoing officials in Europe who said little or nothing would be made public until the hostages were freed.

The 14 were among 32 European tourists seized in separate incidents in February and March while traveling in southern Algeria, famous for ancient grave sites but also a known hideout for militants, bandits and smugglers.

Algerian commandos freed 17 of the hostages in May, killing their kidnappers who Algeria said belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat fighting for a purist Islamist state.

Heatstroke is thought to have killed another hostage, a 45-year-old German woman.

Conflicting media reports on the remaining 14 hostages met with a wall of silence from governments.

Two German television stations, ARD and n-tv, said a handover had been due to take place on Sunday but did not occur for unspecified reasons. ARD said the handover could take place on Monday. The German Foreign Ministry declined comment.

Another German television station, ZDF, said the hostages had "very probably" been released already and that ransom money had been handed over, but diplomats in Mali said the report was wrong. The German Foreign Ministry declined comment again.

NEGOTIATORS IN CONTACT WITH KIDNAPPERS

After the Algerian shootout, the remaining hostages were moved to neighboring Mali last month, officials have said.

German and Malian negotiators have made contact with the kidnappers in Mali, who German media reports say want some $5 million for each hostage as well security guarantees.

The kidnappers have kept the hostages on the move from one remote hideout to another in a desert where temperatures at this time of the year can reach 113 Fahrenheit.

Malian officials have said the release could happen this week.

"I wouldn't be here if we weren't hopeful, but it could take some time," Chrobog said after arriving in Mali's capital Bamako with a plane ready to take the hostages home. "We hope the matter ends well."

Quoting unnamed sources in Bamako, Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper said the release could take place on Monday after Malian officials traveled to the border region with Algeria at the weekend to negotiate with the militants.

The German and Swiss foreign ministries both declined comment on the report on grounds of not endangering the hostages' safety. A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she had heard the report but could not confirm it.

The efforts to free the hostages have put rare international attention on Mali, an impoverished country named after an ancient empire which grew rich from trans-Saharan trade through the legendary city of Timbuktu -- now a byword for isolation.

The kidnappings were a setback for oil-rich Algeria, which had seen a sharp fall in rebel attacks and a return of foreign tourism and investment.

Algeria suffered a decade of violence during which more than 100,000 people were killed after the cancellation of elections in 1992 that radical Islamists were poised to win.

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