Suleiman Meets with Nigeria's President over Hostages

President Michel Suleiman met with his Nigerian counterpart Goodluck Jonathan on Monday and the the two leaders discussed the purported execution by Islamist radicals of seven foreign hostages this month, including two Lebanese.

Suleiman said he still had hope "the kidnappers will set (the hostages) free immediately".

The two Lebanese were abducted along with two Syrians, a Greek, an Italian and a Briton, all of whom were employed by Lebanese-owned construction firm Setraco in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi.

The group were seized from a construction site on February 16 in northern Nigeria, in an attack claimed by Islamist group Ansaru, which later posted a video and a statement online announcing the hosted had been killed.

Britain, Greece and Italy, whose nationals were among those taken, said reports of the hostages' deaths appeared credible, while Beirut has voiced doubt that its citizens were killed.

Nigeria has not yet offered confirmation on the purported executions.

"We are still working on it and we will get to the root of it," Nigeria's Jonathan told journalists in his first comments on the Ansaru execution claim.

"If they are killed. I insisted that we must get their corpses," he added, noting also that the video posted on YouTube "did not really show all the seven abductees”.

Ansaru is considered an offshoot of the more prominent Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds in Nigeria since 2009.